A Wealth of Experience and knowledge!!!

Reduce cap ships and increase carrier cruisers with bomber. Also make sure you are researching tech.

thanks for that Ryat.  Much appreciated.  But what tech should I be researching?  I already had researched all the techs needed to increase the power of missiles and lasers, but it didn't seem to help much - well, apart from making me use up all my money lol

It's simple math really. If you have ten units and the first tier upgrade is 10% then is that level of research worth the cost or should you build 1 more unit and get the extra hull and shield as well.

Once you max out a fleet supply level it might be worth looking into some of the damage upgrades if you have enough of that ship type to justify the upgrade.

Some damage upgrades are also better than others in terms of the number of ships they impact.

Advent: Laser damage for fighters, flak and disciples, beams for heavy bombers, illum builds

TEC: Missile damage for bombers and long range

Vasari: Phase missiles for fighters, bombers, flak, long range

Thanks Zombie, I think I understand.  Will give it another go and restrict my researching to those that benefit missile damage. 

It's a great game, but requires a lot of micro-management.  (Unlike Civ3, that was my first RTS, but I had more time to determine what and where - this is quite different and I'm not used to these types of games, so I find it a bit overwhelming)

I think that as long as I restrict my research to missile damage and those ships that utilize that upgrade, I should do better.

Thanks for all your help. 

Err isn't Civ3 a Turn based strategy game? Sins has a lot of turn based influence, but its still far more like an RTS.

As for why your fleet lost it depends what you were up against, but that is a lot of capitalships for a fleet of that size. Captial ships are vital for their abilities but until they level up quite a bit frigates have more fire power overall. As the TEC, your main damage dealers are going to me LRMs, Bombers and Heavy Cruisers*, and with the best economy in the game you should be trying to overwhelm your opponent with them.

As for how to divide your forces, it really depends on the map. If all of your enemies are in the same general direction you can get away with a fortified choke point and one fleet on the offensive, but if you aren't lucky enough to have that situation then a defensive fleet might certainly been necessary.

*The best fleet is always the one that counters your opponent best, for example if your opponent has a lot of bombers trade out for fighters and flak frigates instead.

Is there a Starbase somewhere in the gravity well? If so, that could be what's chewing up your fleet - the AI will almost always upgrade only weapons and defense (strike craft as well if those are maxed and slots are left over), and such a SB is not the kind you want to go toe-to-toe with.

Yes, if you are playing TEC its Armor and Missiles FTW!

"Pro" TEC player

Generally speaking, for mid-game TEC you want your fleet supply to be 1-3 research levels higher than your capital ship crews.  The TEC faction really should be clinging to the notion of fewer higher level capital ships. 

Now, it would be nice if you told us what is killing your units.  How many frigates does the enemy have, and of what type?  What defenses is he employing?  It does sound to me like a starbase is the culprit; a small fleet like the one you describe wouldn't stand a chance against a heavily upgraded base.  If this is a Vasari enemy, you're outta luck and you'll need a much larger fleet to plough through it.  If it's a TEC or Advent starbase, just set your units to "hold ground" behavior and keep your distance; you can easily kill the starbase with bombers or Ogrovs and it's largely helpless against these attacks.

For units, you need to try and get the best balance of survivability and damage.  Upgrades are nice, but you generally want to focus on numbers first.  With only 40 LRM's, you really don't have any business with more than the first tier of upgrades, and you'd be much better served by building additional numbers.  Remember, the higher-level upgrades are balanced around huge fleets (like 1400+ command), so they're ridiculously overpriced for smaller fleets like your own.

Early to mid-game, you can get away with a nice mix of Javelis LRM (about 70%), Garda Flak (about 10%) and Hoshiko Robotics (about 20%).  Vary the proportions according to the kinds of units you encounter.  Throw in a few scout frigates into the mix to reveal mines and "look before you leap" and this simple combo can carry you into the late-game with sheer cost-effectiveness. 

Generally you either want to transition quickly (skipping damage upgrades) into the Kodiak or slowly into the bomber as time goes on.  The Javelis remains a powerful unit, but upgrading to higher-level units is a good idea as you progress.  Armour and hull is always your top research picks for TEC; they give you by far the best value of any of your upgrades.

Well, as expected, you guys know this game far better than I'll ever do.  For me, this is a totally alien (pardon the pun) genre.  More suited to FPS/Action.

As for Civ, yes I know it's a TBS, but the rudiments are similar - more so than what I'm used to.

Anyways, Thanks for all your help folks, the SB is the problem - sorry for lack of info, but you guys have assessed the situation brilliantly!

Will start a new game and use the info you have given me and hopefully this time I'll win!

It takes a lot of time and experience to really get into this genre.  It's got a steep learning curve, and I get that it's hard for outsiders to overcome this.  With time and patience, though, you'll learn the ropes.

Try to think of "time" as a resource in these games.  It's something you have a limited quantity of, and if you waste it you never get it back.  Using your time efficiently is a one of the best ways to improve your performance in any RTS game.  I'm not advocating being the Hare here; as much as Starcraft fanatics will say otherwise you can be very competitive at a leisurely rate.  I'm advocating being the tortoise, and keeping a constant pace at all times.  Eventually, you'll have a universal sense of pacing and timing that applies to all RTS games, and that opens new doors to enjoy this genre.