I'm playing a game where I've got the least amount of planets (at 7) and am pressed into a back corner of the map. I've got some above par research, and my economy went into overdrive once the 3x trade event came in.

My military is very, very weak, focusing on having as many cheap ships as possible. To that end, I have a "Flea" figher, which is a tiny hull with the basic armour tech (bulky but incredibly cheap) and a mark 5 railgun (mass drivers chosen, again, because they are cheap), which costs me between 50-60 BC each. Backing it up is a slightly outdated medium hull design, the "Reaver", with 5 railguns and a single deflector. They've been mass produced and tossed into fleets.

However, I have the highest rated (and most powerful) military in the galaxy. The reason is that I've got all these ships sitting in the vicinity of 3 starbases (with starbase mobilization researched) that make even those tiny fighters very potent attack units that'll take a fair amount of punishment. With the fleet setup, where the Reavers mix in with the tiny fighters, the Reavers will soak up the damage while the Fleas deal the damage. The ships also get +3 speed each, and enemy ships are all slowed down considerably. Its a very nice defensive setup... without some very powerful warships, you would not be able to even dent that defense as long as those starbases aren't hit.

The end result is that I have a military rating that far outpaces anything the other races, with more conventionally constructed militaries, can construct. However, it's obviously limited. Only a few alien planets are in range, and those ships are confined to that little bubble. Outside it, they would be easily taken apart, since the ships are designed to be mass produced. Their area of operation can be extended by building more starbases, but that's obviously slow. However, despite the fact that my military is largely irrelevant in anything but a self defense scenario, the other races still treat my military might as though I'm capable of taking that fighting capability to their doorstep... everyone wants to be my ally, no one wants to attack.

The AI should really recognize how much a civilisation is capable of waging war based on more than a sum of attack and defense values. As it is, an attacker can still attack a couple of my planets that are outside the starbase's influence, and an ally wouldn't see any rienforcements if they were attacked... I'd just sit there and defend myself since it's all I could do. It'd be nice if the AIs could recognize my inability to attack or counterattack.