I have no clue...
I didn't notice it that much in the other 2 games I played so far with DA - I think it has sth to do with the much smaller universe sizes used leading to shorter games.
Atm I'm at war with the Altarians. We both have the same logistics, allowing 4 medium sized ships in one fleet.
My current model looks like this:
4 x Plasma (+8 Damage)
4 x Shields 2 (+8 Defense againts Beams)
23 HP (92 combined in a Fleet)
Theirs looks like this:
6 x Laser III (+6 Damage)
3 x Titanium Armor (+3 Defense against Mass Drivers)
1 x General Life Support
22 HP (88 combined in a Fleet)
I have Xithanium Hull Building so my Hit Points are slightly higher. We both have no military resources.
Now if one of my fleets meets theirs (both fleets consisting of 4 ships), I'm struggling to win the battles. I did some testing and If I win, most of the times 1 of my ships survives (if 2, 1 of them heavily crippled with like 1 hp) - quite I few times I lose (imho too often).
My question is: is it supposed to be like that? I just don't understand how combat changed from DL / how the rolls for the various weapons differ. My ships almost never score more than +5, yet their ships score plenty of +6 and +5 hits.
Also having the right and much more advanced Defense doesn't seem to help at all.