Poll for you.

[Narratio]

Running a game at evenings after work. One of the AI's has got stuck on rail guns (Projectile Weapons). So the AI went for ship size! I've just fought 6 battles in a row. There were between 62 and 43 DN's in each fleet which came through a warp point one after the other. All with lots of Bloody Massive rail guns. My defense started with 54 Battlecruisers (I never build anything bigger because of speed drop off.) By the end of the 6th battle I was left with 8 battlecruisers. As the AI insists on using fleet formations in tactical, my faster vessels could run around him, swamping individual ships while taking minimal (!!!) losses. If I'd have left it to the strategic combat AI I'd have lost everything in the first battle. I really wanted to hand out medals after this lot. Took me all of Last night just to run a turn with all the fighting.
So, if you REALLY want to win, go tactical.
(And carry Aesyrko's Xeno Strength RAID - Suitable for carpet bombing bug infested planets everywhere!