Advice, what would *you* do?

[Saxon]

You also need to take into account your strategic situation. Do you really need a step up the ship size ladder? It looks like your opponent is at least two steps ahead of you, is that making your life miserable or can you hold off?

Also, what is the nature of your empire? Are you looking to outclass the others in the long run or are you going to try and knock them out quick? It is a small galaxy you are playing in, I would be inclined to get bigger ships that are more likely to Last built than to wait for the really big ships. I would also get your boarding ships in action again, before he starts getting new ships that have defenses against that. If you capture another BC, then life is a lot simpler and you don’t have to listen to our advice :-)

I wouldn’t worry too much about the maintenance costs, you can always mothball it at the location you intend to scrap it. You can also reactivate it if someone nasty shows up, so you get some extra defensive value from it, presuming it isn’t gutted from combat.