A credible effort, but I don't really think a beam-oriented fleet will work well at this tech level. Nearly every opponent you will conceivably face will be able to reach much higher speeds than you, making those lasers useless weight most of the time. And the ships here are really, really slow. Correspondingly slow targeting speeds further compound the problem. In short, Precursors and Swarm drones will obliterate them.
If all you need is an initial presence to safeguard your home system, these are probably ok. However I would personally prefer missile-based ships at this tech level. I'm thinking slow missile-throwers stuffed with the most powerful and long-ranged missiles you can manage. Even then I wouldn't expect too much, and frankly I'd forget about fighters entirely until you research Magnetic Confinement drives at least.
I should have been more clear in my original post, but this is for a game with multiple player controlled factions, like a lot of the stuff in the fiction board. They aren't really designed with Precursors or Swarms in mind. In fact, I think Swarms might be turned off. Regarding speed, what speed should I be trying to reach, given that these ships are using Nuclear Pulse engines?
These are definitely only supposed to be the earliest kinds of ships used. The main thing I was looking for was to tell whether or not this concept was way off point for a beam-focused fleet.
Bit late anyway but...
I don't have an issue with an early beam fleet, in fact I think it's the way to go. It just requires a high focus on defence; I'd suggest some 10cm railguns to deal with enemy missiles. I'd also go for cost-efficiency over capability; sufficient speed to dictate tactical parameters just isn't in the cards.
Range is essential to avoid being kited in a beam fight, I'd probably focus on 15cm lasers (which come close to maxing out the FC range for balanced tech). Perhaps a few short-range missiles, either with 1 fire control per tube or to be launched within 5s of travel distance, as an equaliser before the beam fight starts.
I've got plans for another faction to use railguns for missile defense, but on that subject, it seems to me like, unless your railgun tech is significantly better than your laser tech, lasers are the better option for missile defense, since they can be turreted. Am I wrong in that analysis?
Regarding range, this faction will probably have the greatest range in regards to beam weapons, at least at the start, out of the five factions that will be player controlled. Another faction will be focused on kinetics, another on missiles, and the final two will be using a mix of missiles and beam weaponry, so when it comes to them, I don't think this faction has too much to worry about when it comes to being kited. As far as missiles are concerned, this faction doesn't have any missile research completed, so I'm not sure how viable that would be.