Surviving the "Stealthy Stage"

[Aub]

There is a stage in every game (almost every - unless you play full tech) that starts when Stealth Armor is discovered (it's only Armor 4, and Armor is one of the cheaper techs).

At this point, getting scanners that detect cloaked ships is ways ways off. Mines are cheaper to discover, but they, too, cost 100K r.p., and then it takes a lot of time and effort to deploy them. The again, mine warhead I does not go through scattering armor...

So we have a stage of the game when warp point defense is impossible, and fleets are useful only for attacking. In other words, that's when everybody is extremely vulnerable.

Of course things get a little easier if you took a special trait like temp or psychic. But, must I really take one to survive?

Any hints on how to survive this "dark stage"? Is it really unbalanced here (towards offence, reducing the defense to guesswork at best), or do I miss some effective counter-strategies?

Thanks -- Aub