Currently, I am just shy of getting a near-endgame fleet, with two capitals (Conquest and Legion), two Eagles, two or three Heron, a Mora, an Apogee, three Enforcers, a Mule, three Shrike (P), and two Condors. Most of my ships are damaged clunkers while nearly all of the deserters' are pristine. Nearly all bounties are 200k+. I just fought two (separate, not together) that were somewhat stronger than my fleet (one Hegemony deserter fleet with two Legions and other beef walls, another TT deserter with Astral and several Heron and phase ships), enough that I need to resort to tricks (like form deathball near the bottom of the map) to avoid getting my ships picked off with ease and to retreat quickly once peak performance times out. I had to full retreat twice due to peak performance timing out even on the bigger ships, just to reset the clock.
This is not twice of what I can take. (Caveat: I was unable to deploy everything due to map size, probably a little over half of my combat ships.) This is a slightly superior enemy force with better (quality) ships than what I have. (Danger rating was four stars, though.) Also, my character was not a full combat build (because I love max Industry colony skills even more with the new limits now).