I keep coming back to this... I realized there's nothing better. Truly the most beautiful graphics of this genre.
It is not easy. The Artificial intelligence is good, the aliens are merciless but with the right ship and strategy you can likely win out.
One of the new options is to command a ship of marines. Each can have many levels of many skill sets. You need many skill sets with well trained marines to board and capture the largest ships. It's more fun, and cheaper, to build your fleet by stealing the best from the aliens who would kill you. Then use their own ships to defend your territory.