hi hi
So I recently played a game where the AI kicked my flank in a number of different ways, and I realized something about the nature of missiles. Beam weapons might work in very small scale battles, but anything above a couple ships, missiles sorta become the single best option available.
In the past, I had relied heavily on deflector screens to protect my ships, but now the balance seems to lean more towards fitting every possible slot with missiles or extra munitions. A single shield facing might be able to eat 2 or 3 missiles, and point defense might be able to eat up a few more, but extra munitions will give you those 2-3 missiles back and then some. And since missiles will often have the range to reach the enemy fleet before they get a chance to move, going on the attack means that you can handily defeat an equally sized fleet by taking out most of their front line on the first turn. (Some of that might be mitigated if there was an option to designate your ships as being "front line," and "rear line," and have them be placed accordingly in the initial ship placement.)
This discrepancy was illustrated for me in two key battles.
1) One of the major battles in which I lost my entire fleet. I had a group of heavy cruisers that were supposed to tank. They had shields and point defense, and were supposed to charge the enemy in front of my torpedo destroyers and take the hits on the first turn. The enemy fleet still managed to demolish my entire fleet on the first turn by simply saturating my point defense. Sooo many missiles...
2) After holding out against wave after wave of enemy ships using a single planetary defense station, armed with fusion missiles. (I would take out anywhere from 7 to 8 enemies every wave, by judiciously rationing how many missiles I fired at each ship.) I researched militias, and instead of giving my twice the planetary missile batteries, it replaced them with three sets of heavy turbolasers. Even though the enemy AI charged right into beam range, my heavy turbolasers barely managed to knock out a single destroyer before being knocked out themselves. Two sets of fusion missiles might have given a victory, but three sets of heavy turbolasers was a crushing defeat.
Maybe I am missing something, quite possible. But it seems like investing in defensive shielding and point defense is a trap, when faced with on opponent that maximizes missile output.