Most efficient fleet in a battle is:
One with the most amount of stacks (1 type of ship = a stack, 6 stacks max)
AND
One where all the stacks have an equal PR rating.

My vassal sent me 5 billion credits, and I put that money to good use, getting all the way to 1/5th of the way through the Red Crystal mission.

You're vassal sent you money? Don't you mean your lord?

I just came by to call you all a bunch of names. Geek, Nerd, etc.

We love you too Beff.

I took your advice about the stacks Jan. Here is what happened when someone attacked me:

2:28 AM 14 Nov : Failed Invasion

jrroy360`s Farm.CE

Ship Lost Left
t.Ryu-jin Fighter 17,878 118,972
Light fighter-drone Fighter 86,014 116,473


NewImperiumOrder`s Sol.VC

Ship Lost Left
t.Ryu-jin Fighter 6,961 54,292
t.Maru Corvette 1,345 8,155
t.Kalieum Cruiser 16 264
t.Empereur Battleship 0 80
t.Nirvana Dreadnought 0 26
t.Hercules Juggernaught 0 10

Exactly. People at low levels don't know the advice, put all PR into 2 stacks, then your ships "flank" his and do extra damage. Viola, you just have a failed invasion, rather than losing planets.

Of course, now all the people that I attacked got their higher ups to retaliate against me, and so now I've lost like 30,000 planets before I went into DP.

Federations who post lots of OP rock. I definately ended up with + 48 000 planets when I re-entered Damage Protection today. And then I got another 6 000 planets thanks to Space Program I and II. Also, lords who post OP are cool (though difficult to get because they will probably be in a fed and therefore have to post OP so high that you can't use it). But yeah, federations with people who are on a lot have post good OP are key to doing good.