Building ten colony ships in the ten first turns is usually more than a strategy, it is mandatory as well.
(When you play with other players that is, where the competition for land is significant) Having three or four systems can be quite a problem when your neighbours are ruling over twice or thrice this number, leaving you dependant on these.
11 ships after 14 years in the game seems really few indeed, at least compared to the vanilla game. (I read that, in a one-to-one game, a single player (Phoenix D) had lost more than 200 ships a bit after turn 100, so there is quite a difference) I will give it a try once it is released to see how different it plays with such tweaks.
Good luck with the AI! I am not sure about what you can do and cannot do with the AIs files though, as I haven't delved into these either.