[Atrocities]

Welcome to the forum CareyB,

We all have been in your position as we learned to play the game.

Have you been using mounts? On ships of 400 KT and larger you gain access to weapons mounts that dramtically improve the range or power of your weapons. (Design window upper right hand side MOUNTS)

Lean that Phased Poloron Beams are your best friends. Physics 2, then start researching Phased weapons. The AI really does not defend against them earily on.

Point defense weapons. These shoot down incoming missles, fighters, and satellites.

Specialize your ships, have one class use nothing but PPB, and PDC. (Phased Poloron Beams, Point Defense Cannons) Then another uses Torpedos max, and say Depleted Urainum Cannons as an example.

Research Military Science and then Advanced Military Science to gain access to both Ship and Fleet training facilities. Then build them and fleet your ships at those worlds and their experiece points will grow. This will give you a tactical advantage against the AI.

Always deploy mines and Weapon Platforms to your planets. The AI will avoid attacking them for a good while. Deploy the mines first, then build WP. The reason for this is mines take up cargo space on a planet, and once you deploy them, your cargo storage is back to zero thus leaving you room to build weapon platforms (WP's)

Mining your Warp Points is useful as well, but the AI, most AI that is, will research Mines early on and will plow through your mine fields with little problems.

There is a strategy article or thread floating about the forum, and I think there is a link to it in both the Frequently asked Questions sticky and the Important info sticky.