So I decide to go up to difficulty 7 on both opponents, and I decide to have them "all bar technologist.
So I stick up a few defenses Deal with a fairly heavy raid and build a fallen spire survery ship. Ok. Find the planet, send a scout, ok world with lots of resources. Ka ching. build up a force, Take first planet with no real problems, but I see a lot of the forces running off to neighboring worlds.
Then I head to take the next planet, a level 3 world. And my entire fleetis grabbed by 4 tractor platforms then proceed to bounce them back and forth between 2 systems. Till all my ships are all dead. And then my world is mobbed by all the level 3 forces from that world and all the forces that ran from world 1. 200+ ships decent on my home station and kaboom
Total time 30 minutes 24 seconds. Ouch.
I was up against "Thief" and "Scorched earth"
I did better in my next try. 43 minutes before I went boom
I think I'll be doing Easier/moderate opponents in future...