Are my tactics cheaty or is my Admiral game easy?

[Pentastar Enforcer]

I seem to be winning practically every battle in the biggest GC as the republic, with only 1 battle over Ylesia where it was cutting it close. The Eriadu Authority was a cake walk and the Empire has been getting curb stomped on every side. I just took Corellia, Kampe, Kalist VI and so forth, making my way to a Pentastar Coruscant and Kuat. The Empire only has a handful of systems left, while the PA and the Maldrood seem stagnant: Zsinj's empire fell earlier, holding onto like 3 or 4 isolated systems, no clue as to whats going on there.

Every planet I've attacked, once again save for Ylesia, seems to be desolate, with a max fleet of maybe 3 star destroyers there, usually there isn't anything guarding the planet at all, maybe a couple corvettes? I easily curb stomp whatever is in the way with my fleet of 5 or 6 home ones, a couple star destroyers, around 10 MC80s, and the list goes on. I then have the planets where any fleet can come into my territory guarded with a few capital ships as well, so nothing can get in.. except nothing ever tries to. I killed the Lusankya easily in one battle after finding it by itself over one of my systems after it destroyed the lone light shipyard that was above it. Did the same with Thrawn when he was by himself over Kampe, killed Brandei when he was with 1 other star destroyer, etc. etc. When the Empire rarely attacked me, it was Dorja in a single star destroyer attacking Iphign over and over, he'd destroy the shipyard then leave. I've breached the core in my campaign, now bordering the Pentastar Alignment for a while, been bordering the Maldrood for a long time as well, and nothing...

I'm assuming they're all killing eachother and that's why I'm able to annihilate everything I run into? I saw Coruscant changing hands over and over for a while til' the Alignment finally took it, but I'm just surprised that on Admiral NO ONE has anything to fight me with anymore.

As for my 'cheaty' tactic, I'm wondering if it's too op: I usually send a single corvette in to scout the map, discover everything on it, then I jump in all my home ones and star destroyers right onto their fleet or behind it if theres room. Once that happens the imperials get overwhelmed in a matter of a couple minutes, and the battle ends in a complete and total victory, 0 losses on my part. The only real reason I had issues at Ylesia was because i started my game without placing a ship to hyperspace into battle before the others, so everything just jumped in at once.

Anyway, info or advice or whatever would be appreciated! - Also, I set the space pop cap to 120 for every faction if that would cause any serious issues

[DarthRevan106]

The AI focuses defense on boarders so if you kill one fleet most of the time rest is easy.That is for early only cause AI there does a lot of stupid shit.ALso some AI are programmed to be less aggressive and build less.As for the tactic it isnt cheating NR is just op...

[derp]

The AI focuses defense on boarders so if you kill one fleet most of the time rest is easy.That is for early only cause AI there does a lot of stupid shit.ALso some AI are programmed to be less aggressive and build less.As for the tactic it isnt cheating NR is just op...

I disagree, you put 120 pop for every faction obviously the AI admiral is gonna struggle since the only tough they would do is make a horde of frigates and spam. Now you're able to meet that spam with powerful ships in number and crush them.

[Pentastar Enforcer]

I disagree, you put 120 pop for every faction obviously the AI admiral is gonna struggle since the only tough they would do is make a horde of frigates and spam. Now you're able to meet that spam with powerful ships in number and crush them.

Guess I'll change that next time around, didn't think the AI wouldn't be able to respond as well.

[Pali]

Also, I set the space pop cap to 120 for every faction if that would cause any serious issues

It definitely changes faction balance, and does so in the NR's favor I'd say.  With how spacing works in EaW, if you can largely fill the screen with ships, then quality will beat quantity every time, as the quantity advantage can't actually be brought to bear - there's a limit to how many ships can be in combat with each other at any given moment because you can't just cram everything you have into firing range.

Think of the Battle of Thermopylae, or really any famous battle involving the ancient Greeks.  The Persians had a massive quantity advantage, but because of the terrain, they couldn't bring that advantage to bear, so the 300 Spartans and assorted other Greeks were never at any one point truly outnumbered.  This allowed their advantage in quality to be decisive during the first couple days of fighting, as the Persian troops simply weren't equipped or trained to the same level, so the Persian troops that engaged the Greeks head-on were slaughtered.

It's pretty much the same thing here.  If the NR can't be effectively outnumbered by the Imperial factions, it will win just about every fight, because pound for pound they have better ships (especially in later eras).  Fighter swarms can't be limited this way, so theoretically the Imps should be able to at least win the fighter battle, but the AI is terrible at concentrating its fighters - so it can't really take advantage of this, and NR fighter quality will mean that an NR player should be able to establish fighter dominance as well.

[derp]

Guess I'll change that next time around, didn't think the AI wouldn't be able to respond as well.

I must clarify I think 120 pop is a lot of fun and I don't think it shows the NR as OP since the IR and Warlords get battle-cruisers and SSDs that they can field in force.
I've also had very epic battle because the AI has done things I've not witnessed before on Admiral difficulty and that is making tons of massive fleets and essentially barricading me to one place. That being said the AI is still dumb in the fact it will attack me with a very small force unless I leave a large force at one of my border planets.

[Pentastar Enforcer]

Im starting to think that the Imperial factions have focused all their resources on eachother, the Empire was killed not by me but by the Maldrood, Zsinsj has only 2 planets left and the Pentastar Alignment and Maldrood are both constantly exchanging planets. I'm guessing this is a case of divide and conquer. I only just now reached era 4 while most of my game was in era 1.

[Pentastar Enforcer]

Well I've found where all the big fleets went. I've been fighting fleets of Bellators, Allegiances, and Secutors galore since I reached the northern part of the galaxy, battle over Myrkyr was a pain even with 2 Super ships. Every system has a good fleet over it so its a slow crawl to destroy the maldrood and the alignment. I'm just upset they aren't trying to attack me.