In general, CIS fleets and armies are meant to have a few of every ship or vehicle, and Republic fleets and armies are meant to have mostly the same two or three ship or vehicle types.
Early tech space combat is Munificent spam; once you get carriers, use Munficent-Carrier mix fleets. Lucrehulk fighter spam is also a valid tactic.

Here's a list of some ships and what they are good at:
Munificent - High health due to high hardpoint count, and also high damage. Can easily 1v1 an Acclamator.
Droid Carrier - Provides some fighters, not too many. Your main source of fighters early game.
Providence - Somewhat well-rounded ship. Moderate amount of fighters, moderate firepower, moderate health. Unlike Republic Venators, these aren't meant to be spammed.
Lucrehulk - Relatively low damage for size, incredibly high fighter count and decently high health.
Supply Ship - Anti-fighter carrier. Doesn't carry as many fighters as Lucrehulk, but still carries quite a few.
Recusant - Similar to Munificent; hardpoint health, damage, etc.

As for ground combat, here's a list:
AAT - Good all-round tank. Can shoot down LAATs.
HMP - Good against everything except Republic AA turrets. High health and damage.
Snailtank (forgot what it was called, never payed attention to names) - High damage, low health. Good against heavy vehicles if supported.
HAG - Long-range artillery.
Hailfire - Good against infantry.
Homing Spider Walker - Very high health (can survive orbital bombardment), anti-infantry and anti-light vehicle. Also can defeat Jedi if used properly (and with a repair station).
MTT - Can infinitely deploy 4 B1 battle droid squads. Very high health (can survive orbital bombardment).
Destroyer droids - Anti-infantry, also super speedy.
Commando droids - Good at destroying a building or two in a raid.
Field commanders - Extra FOW reveal range.
Repair droids - If you don't want to lose many forces, use these things.

If you didn't see a unit on this list, I don't recommend using it. Also, take into consideration what you're fighting before going into battle and plan accordingly

Originally posted by Syionic:

In general, CIS fleets and armies are meant to have a few of every ship or vehicle, and Republic fleets and armies are meant to have mostly the same two or three ship or vehicle types.
Early tech space combat is Munificent spam; once you get carriers, use Munficent-Carrier mix fleets. Lucrehulk fighter spam is also a valid tactic.

Here's a list of some ships and what they are good at:
Munificent - High health due to high hardpoint count, and also high damage. Can easily 1v1 an Acclamator.
Droid Carrier - Provides some fighters, not too many. Your main source of fighters early game.
Providence - Somewhat well-rounded ship. Moderate amount of fighters, moderate firepower, moderate health. Unlike Republic Venators, these aren't meant to be spammed.
Lucrehulk - Relatively low damage for size, incredibly high fighter count and decently high health.
Supply Ship - Anti-fighter carrier. Doesn't carry as many fighters as Lucrehulk, but still carries quite a few.
Recusant - Similar to Munificent; hardpoint health, damage, etc.

As for ground combat, here's a list:
AAT - Good all-round tank. Can shoot down LAATs.
HMP - Good against everything except Republic AA turrets. High health and damage.
Snailtank (forgot what it was called, never payed attention to names) - High damage, low health. Good against heavy vehicles if supported.
HAG - Long-range artillery.
Hailfire - Good against infantry.
Homing Spider Walker - Very high health (can survive orbital bombardment), anti-infantry and anti-light vehicle. Also can defeat Jedi if used properly (and with a repair station).
MTT - Can infinitely deploy 4 B1 battle droid squads. Very high health (can survive orbital bombardment).
Destroyer droids - Anti-infantry, also super speedy.
Commando droids - Good at destroying a building or two in a raid.
Field commanders - Extra FOW reveal range.
Repair droids - If you don't want to lose many forces, use these things.

If you didn't see a unit on this list, I don't recommend using it. Also, take into consideration what you're fighting before going into battle and plan accordingly

Ok cheers - Ill give it another go- I started playing on the from ashes scenario to get used to the CIS - I note that you don't use Techno Union frigates- you don't rate them I take it?

I figured out that droid pickets and patrol ships are useless practically

Originally posted by Cato:

Originally posted by Syionic:

In general, CIS fleets and armies are meant to have a few of every ship or vehicle, and Republic fleets and armies are meant to have mostly the same two or three ship or vehicle types.
Early tech space combat is Munificent spam; once you get carriers, use Munficent-Carrier mix fleets. Lucrehulk fighter spam is also a valid tactic.

Here's a list of some ships and what they are good at:
Munificent - High health due to high hardpoint count, and also high damage. Can easily 1v1 an Acclamator.
Droid Carrier - Provides some fighters, not too many. Your main source of fighters early game.
Providence - Somewhat well-rounded ship. Moderate amount of fighters, moderate firepower, moderate health. Unlike Republic Venators, these aren't meant to be spammed.
Lucrehulk - Relatively low damage for size, incredibly high fighter count and decently high health.
Supply Ship - Anti-fighter carrier. Doesn't carry as many fighters as Lucrehulk, but still carries quite a few.
Recusant - Similar to Munificent; hardpoint health, damage, etc.

As for ground combat, here's a list:
AAT - Good all-round tank. Can shoot down LAATs.
HMP - Good against everything except Republic AA turrets. High health and damage.
Snailtank (forgot what it was called, never payed attention to names) - High damage, low health. Good against heavy vehicles if supported.
HAG - Long-range artillery.
Hailfire - Good against infantry.
Homing Spider Walker - Very high health (can survive orbital bombardment), anti-infantry and anti-light vehicle. Also can defeat Jedi if used properly (and with a repair station).
MTT - Can infinitely deploy 4 B1 battle droid squads. Very high health (can survive orbital bombardment).
Destroyer droids - Anti-infantry, also super speedy.
Commando droids - Good at destroying a building or two in a raid.
Field commanders - Extra FOW reveal range.
Repair droids - If you don't want to lose many forces, use these things.

If you didn't see a unit on this list, I don't recommend using it. Also, take into consideration what you're fighting before going into battle and plan accordingly

Ok cheers - Ill give it another go- I started playing on the from ashes scenario to get used to the CIS - I note that you don't use Techno Union frigates- you don't rate them I take it?

I figured out that droid pickets and patrol ships are useless practically

Yeah, corvettes are virtually useless (only exception is the Republic's Carrack, that thing isn't entirely worthless against fighters, though not outstanding).
I forgot about the Techno Union frigates. They have moderate damage (bit more than Acclamator) but, due to the numbers of hardpoints, they are absolute tanks (practically the CIS-variant of the Dreadnaught heavy cruiser).

Some things I forgot to mention as well, few high health hardpoints are weak to bombers, and tons of low-health hardpoints are weak to excessive fighters. Oh and use your Buzz droids from Vultures .

most of the cis units are decent overall with only a few being bad.

Ground:
B1: Highly dangerous in huge numbers but not worth using the ground pop to reach those numbers as you will forgo other powerful units but we will get to that. Can capture.

B2: An upgraded variant of the b1, more powerful than the b1 but i never use them as you must use ground pop to reach those huge numbers, thats just me though they are very useful on defence though however. Can capture.

Crab droid: light anti infantry walker, i have never found them overly useful but that may just be me.

Stap: Useful as a scout but not any use beyond that as they dont have the bomb that barcs do.

Droideka: Personally i find this unit to be better than the stap and the crab droid at their respective jobs, easier to spam, anti infantry and can take vehicles in high enough numbers, fast like the stap and higher dps than crab droids.
Commando Droids: Requires heavy micro but these units are outstanding, can sabotage and scout and deal with infantry.
Field commanders: not essential at all, waste of pop for me.

AAT: I never use them on offence as they dont have high damage or health and are slow but they do pose a threat when in a group of 4 or more which requires 2 pop to reach. On defence though where these things are a garrison unit they are extremely useful. Bare in mind that they will lose a fight to a single squad of clones if not microing.

Droid Tanks (snail droid): The superior version of the AAT, surprisingly tanky, surprising range, high damage. the only advantage the AAT has over this is spam potential and the AAT can shoot while retreating. This unit is also a garrison unit from heavy factorys.

HMP: Fast, High damage, Mobile, High health for aircraft. These units are a staple once i have them unlocked for me personally. All ground units can target them with turbo lasers being able to two shot them however most ground units wont target them for some reason outside of the odd clone squad or an AT-RT/Barc speeder. Watch out for AA turrets as they will tear through them if not dealt with.

MTT: The core of any invasion force, keep these back and deploy b1 squads, several of these will deploy the numbers of b1s i was referring to earlier that make them a force to be reckoned with, they cost 1 pop, are extremely durable and when paired with repair droids are near indestructible. They arent much use in a fight outside of base infantry as they have close to no armament but their garrison and ability to hold is more than enough reason to use them.

Repair droids: They cost no pop and can repair most CIS units outside of most heroes and HMPS. Solid Support and help MTTS greatly.

Hailfire: Mobile artillery, i prefer these to the actual droid artillery as their fire rate is much faster and they are much more mobile with their dps being higher the only thing they lack is the range of the other artillery and they are more costly being built from heavy factorys instead of light.

Droid Artillery: The slower but longer range Artillery, they are more useful on defence i have found where they are easier to set up and they can deal with turbo lasers easier than the hailfire as they dont have to be within range of the tower to hit them.

Spider Walker: These things have absurd health and im not sure why, they fall quickly to AT-TEs but everything does but outside of that they can wipe most things of the map, a few of these will answer most questions although i dont use them often as i dont like how slow they are.

Super Tanks: I dont use these often because i feel cheesy when i do and they can only be built on geonosis but much like the spider droids they will decimate everything outside of AT-TEs and they can sort of deal with turbos if supported by repair droids.



Space:

Vulture droids: Much like the b1 these are highly dangerous in huge numbers and the buzz droid ability is very powerful, dont underestimate how useful they can be.

Droid bombers: They serve their purpose but arent anything special, inferior to the hyena bombers in every way.

Hyena bombers: A garrison only unit from certain ships at high tech, these will make mincemeat of hardpoints in moderate numbers unlike the standard bomber that has to be in high numbers.

Corvettes: Dont even bother, the only time i have ever used these is garrison units from space stations and they do come in handy every now and then against arc 170s but the same result could be accomplished by vulture and buzz spam.

Munificent: I dont know why but these have never worked for me, they have high damage to start but they have the health of a wet paper napkin so that damage drops very quickly as hardpoints get destroyed. More useful as support once you unlock better things and i never use them on offence once i get the providence but on the upside they are very spammable however with no fighter garrison i dont find them very useful outside of protecting bigger ships from bombers with its point defence ability.

Techno union frigate: The superior version of the munifcent with the assault ability being a godsend, dont expect them to take venators unless in stupid high numbers as venators are busted (yeah i said it, you republic players who moan vulture droid spam is op while you spam venators each armed with a laser that one shots shields and near enough one shots frigates) but techno unions do everything the munificent does but better, they arent as spammable and arent a garrison unit however.

Recusant Destroyer: Solid enough frigate, kind of a middle ground between the munifcent and the techno union frigate, more powerful than the munificent and spammable like it but weaker than the techno union.

Droid Carriers: Your early game fighter garrison unit, arent much in a straight fight however are a solid support unit as these are where you will be getting your fighters from before you unlock the lucrehulk and providence. They remain useful in the late game as they build much quicker, are cheaper and cost less pop than lucrehulks and their pathing is nowhere near as awful as the lucrehulks.

Lucrehulk carriers: High health, low damage for a ship its size (will still destroy any ship that isnt a venator or higher though) and a huge fighter compliment. No reason not to use these once you unlock them and are solid at defending as they dont need to move anywhere.

Providence dreadnaught: Honestly i prefer these to venators, they seem to have longer range and their fire all batterys is great. These should be the staple warship in fleets once you unlock them, if microed well on defense a few of these can destroy most of the ais fleet as they seem to favour frigate spam over venators for a while and by the time they start favouring venator spam you should have sizeable fleets defending the important worlds.

Bulwark: i dont really know what the purpose of this ship is as i barely use them, i dont really know why you would use these over a providence as sure they deal more damage but they dont have the fire all batteries and cant take a hit as well as having not alot of fighter garrison.

The malevolence: Despite its size dont expect it to solo a big fleet. When paired with other ships for support like the lucrehulk or providence its only threat is bombers and the pride of the core. A huge fleet with the malevolence vs a huge fleet with the pride of the core makes for an epic battle.


Hopefully that helps, sorry if i missed any units.

General tips i can give is take bespin asap, the income will help greatly and fortify what key planets you own like geonosis, never auto resolve as its absurd how it works. Cripple the ais ability to build venators as they can only be built on certain planets and the ai will just spawn huge fleets of them late game. At tech 5 the republic get isds, destroy these at any cost, they will wreck any ship 1v1 except maybe the malevolence and the ai cant replace them once all 3 are gone.