Hi guys - wanted to mention a couple of things.
One, things are changing rapidly, and balancing a mission well takes a lot of playtesting - so, yeah, the actual difficulty is going all over the place. AI changes in particular have a huge impact.
Two, I tried Predator or Prey? a couple of times (in the same build that you all have). Lost the first few times pretty badly, but then got the hang of it and rattled off a few wins in a row. Now, this might not be the only winning strategy, but what I've found that works is an assault on the nearby nav buoy, and a "Rally Carrier Group" *in front of it* and off to the side a bit. The Condor takes a lot off the heat off you - the bombers tend to go after it, and so do the fighters, and it absorbs a few MIRV volleys for you, too.
You can fairly easily mop up the bombers (though not the Wasps), then lay a course for the Astral - by following where the MIRVs come from, since you won't see it on the map. Make sure to coast in - that way, if your engines do flame out, it won't matter (for me, the flameouts weren't a problem - the Condor + your assorted light craft hold out until you're about halfway there). Then it's just a question of getting into point-blank range so that your Light MGs can take out the shields, and firing 3 torpedoes - enough for the kill.
After that, the remaining fighters and the Omen will harass you for a while, you'll kill most of them simply using autofire, and they'll retreat. Not exactly a clean win, since what you're left with is a half-dead Dominator, but it seemed a pretty reliable way to do it.
Now, all that said, the new in-dev AI is a lot meaner, and the Astral won't be as easy to get to. But there are other changes, too, so how that shakes out remains to be seen.