I don't mind giving updates, but there isn't much to write about right now as only seven or eight anti-missile volleys have been fired so far (over three hours after my previous post). However a warning for those who actually read my campaign, there will be spoilers here, which I will properly tag, but if you don't want to know too much before the write up (which may or may not come before Christmas) don't read anything marked as spoiler.
Anyway, here's a quick overview of the situation. The campaigns is happening in the future after Sol and its colonies were wiped out by a single alien ship. Humanity has survived in a distant area of space where they arrived using story only unstable (as in temporary) jump points, so they can't go home again anyway. The race is divided into three factions - the Federal Republic of Phoenix which is essentially a federalised European Union and while aware of the threat and having a respectable military, they are also very hesitant to use that military. They are also very peaceloving and judgmental. The second faction is the Commune, which is a somewhat communistic state using AI to ensure human failures (like corruption or totalitarianism) won't enter the scene. If you are socialist, the Commune is essentially your Utopia, but they are also very ready to use their military to deal with potential threats, which is why they don't really have a proper alliance with the Republic, despite common interests.
The third human faction is the Hegemony of Man. Their main purpose is to deal with the alien threat, which is still there, and they believe in doing everything they can in order to do so. They are basically a total free economy society, but taken to the unpleasant extremes. Their logic is that USA which they consider the best symbol of such a system, had at one point a military budget almost as large as the rest of the world combined, so clearly their system is the best suited for this dangerous times, but it must be taken even further due to the danger. They are essentially a capitalist dystopia. They also consider the other two nations criminals engendering the whole of mankind with their pointless social spendings. They didn't have direct contact with the Federation, but they did fight two wars with the Commune, and lost both of them. However they did win against an alien race, conquered them and by now integrated them.
In 2406 the Hegemony encountered another alien race. Two problems quickly arisen. First both powers explored several of the same systems before they became aware of each other (space is big). Second the Hegemony was very insistent on immediate creation of an alliance to combat the other alien threats. As in very insistent, to the point the alien race - the Kinharan Confederation - became suspicious that humans were merely setting up some kind of takeover. Eventually the negotiations broke down and the war started. Officially this was due to territorial dispute (both nations were claiming the same systems) but in reality this was a Hegemony attempt to bring the aliens into the fold in order to create unified front against other alien threats.
It should be noted that the same race which wiped out Earth has found the humans and killed several millions of them before they were stopped. Another attack is expected in the future.
The first battles were fought in 2407. Three Hegemony carrier groups (each carrier massing over two hundred thousand tonnes) confronted a much larger alien force. Thanks to technological advantages the battles were a tactical victory for humans, who destroyed a couple of dozen ships without losing a single spacer and suffering only minimal armour damage. However the battles were a strategic victory for the Kinharans as their heavy point defences have run the Hegemony out of ammunition and forced them to fall back. The systems of Amarillo and Albuquerque were lost to the Confederation, although neither was inhabited.
Seven years later, in 2414, the Hegemony launched a jump point assault on Amarillo. They lost over eighty ships but they destroyed a much, much larger enemy force. As picketing jump points is maintenance intensive, only part of the enemy force could be deployed at any given time and much larger enemy fleet was encountered later, but withdrew. Unable to launch a second jump point assault against an enemy even more powerful than before, the Hegemony was forced to halt. Amarillo, Albuquerque and several previously unexplored systems connected to the latter were taken over, which included a small enemy colony, but another stalemate has developed.
In 2420 the Hegemony finally assembled another invasion force, led by eight carriers and three jump battleships, some massing three hundred thousand tonnes. Those were supported by three hundred and sixty cruisers (30kT), destroyers (20kT) and frigates (10kT) and carried 1290 fighters. However the enemy was not defending the jump point. As only part of the force could be present at any given time and the attacker could amass his entire force, the attacker effectively had the advantage in such a situation and the Kinharans could not afford another defeat. So the Confederation was waiting in the inner system, orbiting their colony with a force consisting of over five hundred and seventy battleships, cruisers, destroyers, frigates and corvettes. I don't remember the sizes and can't check as the game is processing auto-turns but in general the Kinharan ships are smaller than Hegemony ones. Overall the humans had about ten million tonnes of shipping while the Confederation had about thirteen million tonnes.
The Hegemony missiles mounted on their bombers and major warships, while different, have the same speed to allow mixed salvoes. This was done due to the difficulty of penetrating enemy point defences. As such the humans could have launched a massed strike, but the Hegemony commander decided to send the fighters first to test the enemy defences and to start running him out of interceptors. Once the enemy detected the missiles, he sent his own fighters - of which the humans were not aware - to destroy the invading small craft. The bombers can't possibly retreat fast enough and will likely be completely destroyed, but that is in the future. Right now the game is processing anti-missile launches against the Hegemony strike of 16 350 missiles