I had fighters, not many though, perhaps two hundred in the battle for the warp point and another hundred in my home system. Other fighters were built behind the lines, but they could not join in the battle. And finally, the Last problem was a certain lack of resources, Carriers are more powerful in the early game than other hulls, but they are also more expensive to build.
You're right, I forgot about ECM/sensors/training until too late. I also lacked research centers, as you were obviously researching at a much faster pace. As for the battle for this system, yes winning (it should have been the case) and harder, holding the system (I don't believe it would have been the case since your invading fleet would have engaged earlier while my mines were not deployed) could have helped quite a lot. (I did know about the strategic importance of the next system, as my scouts managed to... erh, scout some of your systems)
I expanded rather fast, although I lost a colony ship because of a Black Hole. But my problem with expansion was the lack of new research centers after turn 20 or so. I was still rather far from the 30k points Slynky mentioned. Finally, I considered taking the Advanced Storage Techniques, but I decided to take +5 in Maintenance instead. A not really clever choice I would say as 5% upkeep doesn't help much compared to 10% maintenance. And this costs 1000 points. Next time, I will do a few changes to my Empire.
Thanks to you Slynky for your comments! Yes indeed, I am not what you would call a seasoned player. But competitive games are the best way to learn, as the AI is heavily relying on bonuses to be a challenge. And of course, if you gave me a X3 bonus to research and resource production, I would win the game with Geoschmo.

*Resumes his plot aiming at the removal of Deccan from the Last position in the rating system*
[ September 24, 2003, 15:41: Message edited by: Alneyan ]