I didn't use many fighters because they were expensive to build in the early game (every mineral counts when your storage of minerals is only a three-figures number, usually 120 or so), and later on I was eventually replacing my old Carriers by Dreadnoughts. But still, I had fighters during the Battle, although I believe they weren't launched during the fight and I didn't launch them manually before.
Still, I should have built more fighters instead of weak Carriers here and there. Even if fighters are rather slow compared to the rest of my fleet. (Only a speed of 7 for a common design with 2 DUC, while even baseships were travelling at a speed of 9. And baseships aren't what you would call the fastest hull available) They weren't many PDC around, a dream for fighters, especially against these planets.
And yes, there was a shortage of mineral planets in this game. The only ones really suitable were asteroid fields, (read, remote mining and/or Stellar Manipulation. Yes, I even researched Stellar Manipulation to transform these 275% huge asteroid fields into planets, hopefully breathable planets) and the occasional uncolonizable, unbreathable tiny planet here and there. Sure, a planet with 0% mineral isn't going to help much when you lack mineral.
I was even lacking radioactives, but that happens when you are building a hundred heavy mount PPB at the same time.
Edit: oh, one of your ships managed to actually destroy one of my Carriers in the skirmishes. It was a capture ship which took over a Carrier with no supplies left. Erh, well, perhaps it isn't an exploit. However, your ships were rather strong, as the final battle resulted in heavy losses on both sides.
[ October 02, 2003, 15:49: Message edited by: Alneyan ]