@ Toranth: I was mostly joking around when I said that about the BBs 
Glad you were joking, but to get rid of that "Mostly", try this saved game. Just play for an hour or so, and tell me what you think.
Not as bad as 4000 Raids, but close.
I've played against a 10 Heroic AI. It is down in the reds for a reason, it is nasty, and it is supposed to be nasty.
Just a "the hell did you do" type of moment, when I saw the locations of your HWs. Then I checked the bonus ships, which you grabbed two that would work decently against champs.
Anyway, Heroic AI uses Champions (Yup, same stuff we get access to with our champs). Nemesis ships are the global AI response to the player having champions. Nemesis ships are locked in at the FF level.
So while I didn't actually play your save, I know the pain that AI brings. There were just to many planets I would need to gate raid and neuter while setting up initial defenses to get the waves to come in from one direction (11 systems?!!).
It was a surprisingly good start. I just made it, based on an older game I've been trying to win for months, mostly to demonstrate what happens when 100 destroyers/hour come flooding in. In the game there, I was able to survive the first 3 groups of Nemesis, but when a wave and a Nemesis group coincided, that was it.
Gate raiding only took the AIP up enough that wave size was about 15000 normal ships. Not too bad for a 5 HW game, it was just bad timing.
I may come back and try to win that one seriously at some point.
Did you ever beat a diff 10 Heroic AI? I was unable to do so without serious cheese (+300%/-300% handicaps, for example).
The concept the AI getting bigger hulled ships in those same quantities... I've seem what 8 BBs can do to 5000 fleetships and it ain't pretty. 50 BBs? Might as well rename your Homeworld "GG" and be done with it. (Kind of want to see it once, though - you know, like the "so THAT'S what 100 motherships looks like" moment.)
