Canary In Coal Mine Defence fleet size?

Heres the deal: I am on the Canary In The Coal Mine mission in War Without End (can I just call it E1 in the future? less typing). But the defense fleet seems endless. I get endless amounts of Frigates, Heavy Cruisers, Interceptors, and Gunboats. Missile Cruisers and Dreadnoughts occasionally too. I can destroy the fighter swarms with my X-Ray Laser. The warships too. But I am getting tired of it, as I have done it for hours. My mighty Beam Cruiser with all speed upgrades and Tritanium has gotten down to almost no shields several times, and I need to tediously regenerate shields to 100% with Caps Lock and increasing speed to 225%. I have used all of my Nukes, and I doubt 3 Neutron Turrets and 4 Stingrays would make a difference. So I ask: What if the DefCount of New Providence? I cant do it myself, as I would lose all ships I already have fought, and would have to start again. Though I have heard that you can land to save your progress, and still not have to start again. Then some maths-savvy member could translate that to actual ship amounts. If the size is something over 1,000 ships, ill get a Forklift. Cheats were originally meant to be used when the game is simply too tough. This is one case of that.

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I am eager to try to answer mission questions

You can actually land to restock, and the defence fleet will not regenerate.

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En route to our destination I stumble about what may well be the most pathetic battle I’ve witnessed. A three way FFA starring a Terrapin, a Pegasus and a Leviathan - three freighters with the combined firepower of a tickle-me-elmo. - Dagomar

Is the planet new providence? If it is than it has a defence fleet of 70 ships that launch in waves of 5 ships each.

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The name of my ship is the Avenger, its time for all pirates and Pee Cee useres to run, or die.

It's not impossible even if you don't land. I tend to stock up full on neutrons and beam weapons. With maxed speed upgrades the dreadnaughts tend not to hit you at all.. I usually just lure the fighters out, kill them in about 5 seconds, then double back and finish the dreadnaught in 4-5 passes. anything smaller than that dies much quicker, obviously. Ironically, the frigates do much more damage to me than the larger ships. :s

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En route to our destination I stumble about what may well be the most pathetic battle I’ve witnessed. A three way FFA starring a Terrapin, a Pegasus and a Leviathan - three freighters with the combined firepower of a tickle-me-elmo. - Dagomar

I actually did this mission already, and the the two others after it. I used Forklifts, because I got tired of waiting for answers and thought you couldnt land to restock. I got tired of using only my beam to kill everything. But thanks anyway for the help, they will be useful for future missions. If you can land to get more Nukes, that makes domination more reasonable. Then I wont say domination missions are unreasonable anymore. Sejuk, if it was just 70 ships it is definitively reasonable. I think I just was scared of the large waves. For your second post, there is no beams in E1 except those the player achieves doing missions. This means he cant get those without doing a string. The only beams are on ships and one as buyable after the Alien Cruiser missionn in the Weave string. Except Tractor Beam. How many Neutrons do you get though? As I looove Nukes, I always leave a lot of space. They are the only secondary that can fleet battles ! You still need a lot though. So I dont get so many Neutrons. My Beam Cruiser had over 40 Nukes, but only 3 Turrets. I got all speed upgrades, but still get hit by the Dreadnought. Is it because I dont maneuver enough?

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I am eager to try to answer mission questions