Welp I got totally obliterated lol. I don't really understand the combat / ship design. I had researched point-defense systems but didn't realize I could change the ship sections in my designs to actually get a P slot... Ended up in a war against two enemies. The first only had one serious laser-armed fleet and I beat it, then I went to regroup and push into the other guy and he had one fleet twice as strong as my largest... I just let him take a system while I bulked up a bit, then went to go fight at like his 1.7k power vs my 1.5k, but he just shattered my fleet with a volley of such missiles, barely even taking any serious damage. I wish the game would should combat projections or something, that power level doesn't seem super useful if you're about to get hard-countered by the loadout.
First game: whoops!