I noticed how easy all those "hard" missions really are.
For example:
When the objective requires you to land on an enemy planet and there is something (e.g. asteroids, planets, stations) in the way you can just go around it and they will completely ignore you. (You need to escort the transport around, but bring 3 or 4 to ensure sucess) Then you order you entire force at your planet to launch at the enemy planet, they get there and blow everything up and you land capturing their planet and win even though huge amounts of enemies still remain.
Also how easy Mission 19: You should have seen what got away, really is. All you do is build a couple gunships then lots of cruisers. Fight off the first few attacks then take a transport to the main enemy system. take whatever casualites you need to. The gateship won't attack the transport unless nothing else is there, so you just land and then all they can build is cruisers and fighters. you let them sit in orbit around your system and you kill whatever they launch, then you make two more transports and capture their bases. And then have every planet making cruisers and have them all blow up the gateship, and you won, bango!
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"A terrible darkness has fallen upon us, but we must not surrender to it. We shall lift lamps of courage and find our way through to the morning."
-Member of Emalgha Resistance