(FT) I give, Steve wins

I'm giving up.	Steve's ships are vastly superior to anything
I've ever designed.  Ever.  I can count the number of times
I've won against him, without handicapping him with another
player using different designs (mostly mine), on 1 hand
(a typical human hand, that is, not some 12 fingered alien 
hand :) ).  In fact, I think the human could have even lost
a few fingers on that hand.

Well, I haven't tried the "cheesy" soap bubble carrier or
the long-weapon-range high-speed circle-the-battlefield
type of ship; I don't want to do that.	But I may resort
to the carrier method as long as I have to fight Steve's
battlewagons.

Here is an example of two ships that faced each other.
... never mind.  I don't have the exact numbers of
Steve's main ship and can't seem to get it right in
my spreadsheet.  But it massed 154 (10 more than mine),
included many Pulser Batteries with most set for long
range and 2x class-1 Grasers. 

He did have 2 escorts while my other ship was out
of range, but the result was so devastating that those
other ships didn't matter.  

Here's mine:

BB Isucc
mass 144, cost: (3-row hull) 634
hull: 43, armor 8, FTL, MD 4 (advanced)
Superior sensor, 4 FC, 8 scatterguns
2 class-6 rail guns, 4 class-1 rail guns   

Set up:
I had some armor and hull damge, his BB had a little
less armor hull and damage; all this after about 10
turns of maneuver (I split my two ships to go wide
around and try to work to his rear, figuring he'd
turn to one or the other eventually).

On the turn of decision, Isucc executed a brilliant
(but last) maneuver that placed his entire force
square in front of Isucc at range 7 mu (inches in this case).
And, I won initiative.	So I fired the 2x class-6 rail
guns at the BB and the 4x class-1 rail guns at one
of the escorts.  I roll two 1s.....long pause as I get
a crying towel, again.	I did damage the escort for 4.

His BB fires: Steve rolls about 20 beam dice.  Double
threshold result with 5 hull boxes left undamaged.  We
roll for threshold checks.  Then he remembers the
two grasers.  The two grasers fire with one getting a 1 hit 
for 5 damage.

But you want to know the real kicker?  My 2x class-6 rail
guns, with both hitting for max damage (24), would have
only given his BB one threshold check (it would be close to a 
second...).  Unless I got real lucky knocking out weapons 
(on a 6) my ship was still pretty much dead, at least mission 
killed.  And this for two ships that only differ in mass of 10.

Yes, he had only MD 2 while I had MD 4, but it was so 
one-sided that I'm exasperated about Full Thrust in general.

I don't know what to do any more.

Glen