An annoying thing happens when I play with tons of fighters: My overall strength decreases below 30%, and the game declares “Defeat”.
I still have tons of tiny fighters, though, and they end up winning the battle!
I replayed the level and it happened again.
(It takes a few minutes to see myself win, as the fast forward is disabled due to the so-called defeat)
same here! in the challenge with cruisers with ONLY heavy plasma, they kick my cruisers off the field and my game declares DEFEAT when i keep watching and i win. it’s stupid.
Hm, looks like I just posted something very similar. I thought I’d read this thread…
Actually kinda realistic (which is not a real concept in a game with laser beams and sound in space): if you have no cruisers left the fighters wouldn’t have any way to get back home: air and supplies won’t last for ever. They would just end up drifting in space.
also, it’s a good way to counter fighter abuse.
It has happened to me several times and I never thought it was a bug. I just assumed that having only fighters left, it made sense that I had lost the battle, whether my fighters would eventually beat the remaining enemy ships or not.
It seems to be set that if you are down to just fighters, and with 40% or less left of your forces.
I don’t think it’s a bug. Maybe add a lone armoured cruiser with no engines in the back of your deployment zone so that your fighter swarms don’t lose as easily.
Nonsense! If we were to discuss realism, these man are sent to their deaths willingly!
Also, their orders are: “Kill the alien scum”.
Once that’s done, I consider that a victory, and don’t care for any cannon fodder.
As for the armed cruiser, it crumples my style 
If you want your fighters to just win your battles, deploy cruisers that have one armor and nothing else. Average thickness? Silly! Cost? Cheap! Time to kill? Plenty long enough for your fighters if you deploy as many floating bricks as budget allows (after buying fighters, of course). Actually, I haven’t tried this. It’s possible the game will make you use two armors and a cruiser defense laser or something. 
This is indeed a deliberate design. You can’t win a battle with just fighters, you need some frigates or cruisers.
“A fighter that small couldn’t have got this far into deep space on it’s own” apparently…