TIE fighters are meant to TIE the enemy starfighters down whilst your star destroyers do the work, not to win battles by themselves. Avengers and Hunters are much better of course, but using them in large numbers will get very expensive.

Perhaps you could work on your fighter tactics? Support your fighters with hero bonuses, supplement drops, flak and laser cannon fire, ideally fighting closer to your own fleet so you've got that fire support rather than near the enemy where they benefit from it instead.

Most TIEs are there to pin enemy fighters in place or intercept bombers.
For space superiority, they rely heavily on other ships that do provide the DPS.
At the start of the game, that is your Gozanti. They cost as much as an X-wing squadron, but not only do you get 8 TIE Fighters, but also 2 Gozanti which do have pretty good anti-fighter weaponry.
Bring some 10 of those basic TIE Fighter + Gozanti units and you more or less got your fighter superiority for the early game in that fleet.
Let the TIES engage first, then send in the Gozanti to mop up.
Galleons can help massively as well with their flak, missiles, laser satellite and repair drones.
Lancer and Raiders as well.

Interceptors i prefer to use for, well, interception duty vs enemy bombers. Their high burst damage is very nice there.

I don't really bother with most other fighters available to the empire. Basic TIEs to pin enemy craft in place, then bring in the AA boats to shred.

Empire fighters tend to be very defensive oriented. They work much better close to your own fleet with all that supporting fire. Moving out towards the enemy fleet they don't like at all with how little health they got. Especially keep them away from the Assault Frigates with their heavy dual flak. It can oneshot entire squadrons.

Originally posted by Kajar:

Most TIEs are there to pin enemy fighters in place or intercept bombers.
For space superiority, they rely heavily on other ships that do provide the DPS.
At the start of the game, that is your Gozanti. They cost as much as an X-wing squadron, but not only do you get 8 TIE Fighters, but also 2 Gozanti which do have pretty good anti-fighter weaponry.
Bring some 10 of those basic TIE Fighter + Gozanti units and you more or less got your fighter superiority for the early game in that fleet.
Let the TIES engage first, then send in the Gozanti to mop up.
Galleons can help massively as well with their flak, missiles, laser satellite and repair drones.
Lancer and Raiders as well.

Interceptors i prefer to use for, well, interception duty vs enemy bombers. Their high burst damage is very nice there.

I don't really bother with most other fighters available to the empire. Basic TIEs to pin enemy craft in place, then bring in the AA boats to shred.

Empire fighters tend to be very defensive oriented. They work much better close to your own fleet with all that supporting fire. Moving out towards the enemy fleet they don't like at all with how little health they got. Especially keep them away from the Assault Frigates with their heavy dual flak. It can oneshot entire squadrons.

Ok, thank you for the insight, I will try this!