[Aristoi]

I've found that fighters are very powerful vs the un-modded computer AI. In one instant, I played until I became the MegaEvil Empire and everyone delcared war on me. I then switched to the Last place AI player (who had about 1/8 of my old empire's score).

I was so far behind in tech that I had LCs when I was seeing DNs coming at me. Despire the huge tech difference, when I build a fleet of carriers (7 light carriers with 60 small fighers each) there was nothing that could stop me. I'd blow through stacks of 10-15 DNs. The loss of fighters were never so prohibitive. I might lose 1/3 in a huge battle, but even that was rare.

As a note, I don't like limits on minefield size, makes them too useless in the later games.