Thanks for the feedback. Unfortunately your two experiences were accurate representations of my balancing attempts. Some games I'd get completely obliterated, others I'd obliterate everything else.
As for the power gap between ship classes, destroyers still need to be added to the game, so that'll be cleared up a little when they are. Odds are I'll also give the Kio a little more flux capacity as well, and perhaps increase the power of the frigates a bit too. It also seems I completely forgot to set up the "strike" command--stupid failure on my part.
Again, it's a demo, I knew it wasn't going to be perfect, but the release helps me identify and fix flaws.
And thanks mendonca for the info--if that turns out to work, I'll likely add campaign support in the next release.