While capitals are arguably the strongest ships, I tend to find myself less "flying" and more "placing" them, while letting the AI handle the guns. Odyssey is in an interesting place speed and armament wise, but its difficult to fly given the competing needs between shield orientation, gun orientation, and where the front of the ship needs to be pointed for the speed boost. So I still don't get to fire the guns directly, because shield placement is more important, which makes it less fun than it could be.
So I find myself liking high mobility cruisers the most, preferably with a 2 or 3 medium ballistic slots and a single large energy slot at the front. 180 degree omni shield (which gives the option for 360 front shield with hull mod). So I like SO Auroras for example. In 0.9, the SO Apogee with Plasma cannon and heavy blasters works surprising well at point blank range. SO Falcon is great for crushing destroyers and frigates. DME has the Kormoran Guard cruiser, which has changed quite a bit over time, but that kind of layout I like the most. It was my go to flagship several patches ago. Soften up shields with AI controlled kinetic, then manually aim the doom laser for the finishing shot.
If its a small skirmish that doesn't require cruiser or capital firepower, then I'll tend to default to a Medusa (two phase lances, 2 railguns, a couple PD).