Or have a bazillion fighter&bomber drones...

In all seriousness though my starting fleet was going to be 1 big ass carrier. 4-5 battleships that would be on par with imperial ones or, roughly on par if a little old. And some cheap but effective cruisers and frigates that are built in a hidden base.

The base would be a tiny shipyard with some tethered asteroids for raw materials hiding in a nebula or other nearly impossible to find location.

 The ship yard can't build anything bigger than a cruiser so the battleships and carrier have essentially been hiding since the conquest. Building the base to be a fueling station and hydroponic farm. Only recently become a factory as well, but with very limited capacity.