Take some "Edith AWAC" (i take two and tell one them to escort a big ship then bring the other one mid battle when the first one have to retreat) they are costly and mostly support but they will give you the extra range to make even mid range guns like chemical thrower, bulldog autocanon and other reach 1200+units range. Also help smaller ship against capitals and cruiser.
You have to use your ability to bully the small ship early on and dont hesitate to retreat after a good engagement(even if you dont have 100% clean dissengage) to restart a battle even if you cannot escape, not rare for me to win against very big fleets(like 2-4 hegemony fleets) in two or three engagement, first battle kill the frigates en destroyer seconds one win or destroye cruiser third one finish the capitals.
My line up is way lighter in big ships, and I was able to defeat equal or bigger threat than you so IMHO you put too much emphasis on big ships:
1Arsenal (the Missile box, or Boombox in short)
1Alistair (the Hammer of the ARS)
1Macnamara (the bigger better and badder Reid)
1Lyons (decent guns to fight destro/frigate and brign two wings
1King (as a long range glasscanon it has its place but i can see the point of more than 2 in my fleet)
2Osmond (a bit less powerfull than the Victoria but got a perfect support system)
2Victoria (good ship with an awesome system)
2Caswell (for fighter defence if ennemies are fighter heavy, with twin jacks/aces or barons)
2Edith (for the extra range aura, only deploy one at a time)
4Walsh (omnilaoder spammer and support siege canon to focus/finish a target, destroy fighter/bombers squadrons)
2Sheperd (perfect distractions)
2Reid (flank like no other ship in the ARS)
A classic deployment for me is:
1Arsenal 1Alistair 1Macnamara 2Osmond 2Victoria 1Edith 4 Walsh 2 Reid, that is 14 ships instead of your 10 it cna make a big difference to avoid seeing your big ship picked one by one. The ARS dont have Onslaugth or Paragon, don't try to 1vs1 the big stuff.
Dont forget to avoid to lose too much CR before retreating. Also ARS ship lose low tech amount of CR than most ship of their size if summoned into battle.
As you said Alistair don't have great flux nor capacitors so use guns that are less flux intensiv even if you lose raw power because its BIG and cannot avoid taking hits so it need flux for shield...
Mine don't use pellet canons(too flux intensiv) I prefer common Arbalest/Heavy autocanons
Here my load for my Alistair
ITU, Hardened Shield, reinforced bulkhead (to not lose it if it dies)
2monogram shredder good range 1600 and deny any form of venting safely
2Heavy autocanon for fluxing and 1280range
1buldog autocanon dont need more the siege canon already hit quite hard in explosiv damages
6x Can MRM for the burst fluxing against shield
4 light plasma drive, nice to kill missiles and fighter or small ship that comme too close can be removed for extra OP
2back CIWS BASS for circling missiles and fighters, can be removed if you need extra OP
if i use S-mod 2 Earl or Baron, twin Duke is too costly for a battle carrier...
if no s mode 2x jack(all rounder) or 2x monorail drones(extremely cheap and put pressure)
55cap and 55vent, the base stats are so bad you need to max at least one and have the other at around 30-35 at least...
It cannot win any 1vs1 but its not its job, he come in battle as a hammer, get in with its 110speed when at 0flux, unleash hell then retreat to vent and reload its "can MRM" get another target rince and repeat.
The best weapons of this mod are the unlimited missiles like the Can MRM, String MRM and PD Needle, put some on every of your ship to counter ennemies fighter and missiles(Needle PDM) to break shield(Can MRM), saturate the ennemies PD and sometime EMP them (String MRM). And more importantly generate pressure all the time. Avoid sabots Breacher and more normal stuff if you can.
Avoid micro/gun/canon Pellet if the ship doesnt have max vent and capacitor or few guns like Walsh, Arsenal or King(thx to the Omni loader), Macnamara work better with flux efficient guns like common Autocanon than pellet guns for shield fluxing, it is a fast ship that will usually get into the fray because of its system because he try to EMP other ships.
Bullpup/dog Autocanons, Incendiary Sprayer/Blaster and shield pike/Lance are all very good, thanks to equivalent/better range than their common counterpart but stay Flux sustainable.
Monogram rail and shredder are very good as pressure or anti fighter guns, dont under estimaet them because they don't bring big numbers.
Pellet and Plasma guns are more situationnal. light Plasma driver are always good since they PD and shoot small ship well. Plasma Driver are... meh but work well if you can overload the target then want to dps it down to death the large Plasma canon is super meh because of the soft flux...
Except Walsh(med slot and omniloader), King( large and med slots and omniloader) and Macnamara( med slots and speed) I saw no other ship that can use plasma well.
Also dont forget the Hawk and its variant, the P variant is a very good and fast gunboat and the standard oen bring a very good wing of heavy drones yet still have 110OP for guns and mods, or the Burkes they are good for a battle line type of play, for exemple the Burke P bring a large missile slot for very cheap and the standard Burke has Cruiser with ITU range(+40%) and 1large gun+2small gun slot that shot at the front and 4 PD slots for covering its self and other.
If you try to do a battle line strategy you will need to undergun most of your frontline ship(no pellet guns, use hardened shield mod ) to have a decent flux economy, without hardened shield or officer with shield mastery your ship wont be able to trade flux effectively. and have 1-2 hammer like Macnamara(my prefere), King(if long range) or Victoria/Osmond (if you manage to use their systems), build them as glass canon with massiv capacitor but less vents, pilot them or tell them to get in unleash and get out, for exemple use only can mrm+50-75%kinetic guns and 1-2 explosiv ones for armor, overload the target with the MRM and kinetic then unleash you full firepower until it retrear, let it go, vent, find another target , repeat.
If it goes well after a few trade the ennemy line will begin to crumble where you are pushing as ship die or retreat and you will slowly but surely flank them, be carefull with reinforcement if you push them to the border of the map. Also you can drop Alistair completely and get more Arsenals...they are cheaper in DP and do the front line brawler job better
