Alright, currently I'm playing a scenario called Dread Lords on Parade, on a gigantic map. I start off with 9 races, all on intelligent. I got quite a good number of worlds in the initial colony rush (about 29 planets). And I took your advice earlier about specializing in weapons, and other things necessary for running an empire. Well, after a while, I ran into Dread Lords, but at first they were thankfully very far away. but it didn't stay that way for very long. At this point in the game, they have wiped out 3 races and they are sort of in my back yard. Though my top of the line weapons, the Singularity Drivers and the Graviton Driver Mark I, are doing okay, their weapons are just so overwhelmingly powerful and my defenses are inadequate. My strategy has been up to this point to keep them away from my empire and so I've been fighting them in foreign territory. But the last race they just wiped out, the Drengin, was bordering my empire and they wiped out my main battlefleet with it. In addition, they wiped out all of my military starbases and my early warning sensors along that border. The last I saw, they were headed directly toward my prime influence and economic world. Right now my defenses are kinda scrambled and I'm at loss over what to do. Pretty much, they are prepared for a full scale invasion of my empire and I don't what to do about it, for they are vastly more powerful than I am. So far, I've got an alliance with the Torians and they have some ships stationed in my space for the upcoming onslaught, and I'm busy using my other offensive fleet wiping out the Yor for their planets. I'm wiping out the Yor because they are very far away from the Dread Lords and in the event that Earth and the rest of its sister world are wiped out, I will have a place where I could evacuate and make a last stand. I do have a bunch of defensive fleets back home though and I'm not sure if they are going to hold. I'm wondering what you guys would suggest doing right now. I'm kinda afraid right now, and my chances of survival are a little slim. Also, what are your general overall strategies for dealing with dread lords, and did I do anything wrong?

P.S. When I mean my main battlefleet, I mean my prime offensive fleet. Usually when I have a great number of ships, I divide my armada into large fleets. Typically, I have about 2 to 3 fleets for offense, and about 5 fleets for defense. The main battlefleet usually has 60+ ships in it and is usually used to take the battle against the nastiest races. All of the ships in that fleet have seen alot of combat and are usually equiped for heavy firepower and speed. My other offensive fleets include a secondary one and an expeditionary one. The expeditionary fleet is usually the most technologically advanced fleet but it is alot smaller (i.e. about 30 ships together). It is typically used in very large maps and for keeping a distant empire busy while my main fleet comes in. And then my various defensive fleets are used for either defending the borders and others for individual planets. Given the fact that my main battlefleet has been destroyed in this game, my offensive capabilites have been crippled and I'm forced on the defensive unless I'm able to rebuild it.