How the hell do you play

[Mish101]

I don't get it, i barely level up im now on turn 13 every is going horrible i got a battlecruiser but the enemy can field 3. I do every possible fight per turn but the enemy just has more stuff. I use the broad side of my ships but they barely do damage fights feel slow. Im always outnumbered everything is slow and now im loosing. I try to manuver. And the eldars during data just run around and if i don't ignore the enemies attack me i can't get to it in time. And then when i get the data the enemy suddenly grabs it and warps out. This game is just throwing soo much BS out. What hell am i sposed to do. This is not fun its infuriating no real tutorial. Does the ai settings mean anything. This is horrible. I just wanted to have some freaking ship fights, not run around in circles not have to ignore stuff to barely make it steal data or do some bombardment. I want to fight on equal footing. If the enemy has 3 battlecruisers and 4 light cruisers. Then i also want 3 battlecruisers and 4 light cruisers. Im sorry but all im feeling right now is just frustration because no explanation on what to how to be effective nothing. And i been just loosing all day due to enemies snatching back data and warping out while my pods are on cooldown. Or not being fast enough to reach bombardment or flatout being outgunned and outnumbered. I just got the game i dont know what im doing and im given these odds straight out the box. It really makes me frustrated. THIS IS NOT FUN!

[Zig the Caver]

Try watching some let's plays on Youtube. EnterElysium has a good series that demonstrates the tatics you need to win the campaign.

Against the AI, the Imperium do best against everyone but the Orks by closing in head on then pounding them at point blank range. Don't forget to ram. Focus fire your ships onto single targets. The AI rarely attacks in a coordinated manner deal with the closest threats first--if possible. Take out enemy escorts first--they are weak and easily destoyed but if ignored can dispense quite a bit of damage over time. Nova cannons are particually good at this.

Use your probes to ID ships at a distance. Most of your weapons have ranges beyond the sensor range of each and can only fire against spotted ships.

On the campaign map, not all worlds under attack will be taken the next turn. Only the ones with red color filling the semi-circle are in danger of being lost--so ignore the threats with white semicircles. Protecting gateway (portal?) worlds should be your main focus--they are what give you your full fleet deployment potential.

[Ashardalon]

dont follow pugios advice
EE is horrible at the game like he is at most and gives horrible advice troughout the series

on eldar data recovery dont forget to set target priority
click on enemy ship and set data carrier to 1 and target his engine (system targetting should be explained in tutorial mission)
eldar dont have voidshields so target their engines
engine crits lower their holofields
targetting generators is still a good idea on data recovery tho since generator decides warp cooldown
eldar also dont have many weapons that hit voids hard and they dont have voids themselves so there are no voids to stop a teleport
you just need to get to 5k once then surround your data carrier with your other ships bodyblocking the enemies shots
if eldar do break your voids and steal the data use teleport with one of your ships and get it back then bodyblock that ship
they also suffer double crit chanse so lock on is pretty effective

did you go torps or novas? i advise torps its more reliable and versatile
but novas are good vs eldar if they give you a lot of trouble
just dont go a little of both, taking 1 nova is a complete waste 2 kinda works 3 is decent 4 kills
torps are still better though
torp ships can also get the ramming spike upgrade which is awesome

yes the difficulty matters, higer difficulty gives the enemy more renown to field ships
easy gives less and i think a small damage boost for you
normal is equal fight
hard and so on gives enemy some bonus points

if you prefer cruiser clash you should choose cruiser clash missions on the campaign map
protect the warp gates with everything you have, the rest of the worlds dont matter as much as long as exterminatus has not been decreed
that should give you some freedom to choose what you go for

dont underestimate the widowmaker escort, detection is really important in this game
if the enemy hasnt spotted you he cant shoot you
boosting or high energy turns reveal you unless emmision dissipators
the widowmaker has 9k detection range can be buffed to 12k so no enemy can hide
imperials dont really need detection skils like probes if they are carefull with their widowmakers

in data recovery dont put your boarding on autocast and dont waste it to do dmg
only the data matters, duty first and all that, for the emperor and so on

things will get better, a lot of the game is knowing the ships
not just your own and how far you can push them
but also the enemy's
for example orks are dangerous ramming ships, they have more hp so deal a lot of dmg with rams
but they have 25 rear armor, so if you ram a ork ship in the ass you will come out the better

chaos is a lot of long range guns so make good use of gas clouds and force them to close where your macros and frontal armor rams will massively outdmg them

if you have more questions http://forum.battlefleetgothic-armada.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=15924&p=50596#p50596
this has most of the answers, if you still cant figure things out i will try to help, the more specific the question the better i can answer
you can also friend me and we can do some skirmishes or 2v2 vs AI
easyer to give advice if i see you play