I'm up to mission five I think (Normal, 1.4 patched), the one requiring you to take the Dread Lord planet "Teth." I had no problem on the previous mission, although my tactics were much less refined, I was lucky enough to hit the DL world (and annihilate it -- Mass Driver Invasion!) before they could loose a ship on me.

I think my allies on that one might have been exterminated by a little red ship I barely saw shoot across the map... It looks like the only positive facet of their presence is their accidental ability to act as a meat shield. On #5 (along the all-wins campaign path), all I've seen them do is make frigates and colony ships and constructors to circle my planets (?!?!) while I grind myself to dust on the DL world. On another thread I saw someone suggest breaking an alliance with them -- is this possible in the campaign? How can I do that? It might not make the mission much easier, I guess, but I still want revenge on the cowards.

Picking off the DL nest before they produce a defending fleet I can't break up (fourteen shield points, 20-something hit points, crazy repair speed. Wow.) has been giving me some trouble. I've read up on the strategies, but they seem too research-intensive. It seems the DL worlds are on a constant curve toward invincibility, and once they become active, they spend more and more. I imagine this should disallow massive miniaturization + logistics + soldiering + budget-balancing strategies.

I like the campaign. It's a good fun challenge, even if not for all the right reasons ("allies"), but from the storyline I've played thus far, it looks like it's just a big, fancy training ground for base-rushing...

So to sum it up, for a quick-start strategy, should I be using medium, small, or tiny hulls? Ahh, if I could only fit a good number of those nifty Cargo Hulls into my fleets...