I have been playing sins of solar empire for a while now. But my tactics are really basic... I play as TEC Loyalist and usually me and my friend rush to get a choke point. I will capture the planet and build up defense and twin star base.
Now here are the questions! 
Even if we survive the early onslaught(Not always), I find it very hard to kill 4 vicious AI fleets in 1 planet(They usually mass on the next planet), even with all technology researched and all capital ships and frigates produced to max level.
1) For tec what sort of combination (Capital ships and frigate) is good against AI?
For capital ships, I usually go for 3 kol, 2 marza, 2 dunov, 1 akkan and 5 sova, Starting with kol as first capital ship.
For frigates, I usually recruit 80 repair bots and 50+ carrier(80% fighters, 20% bomber), the rest will be kodiak(around 10-15 at max).
When I phase jumped in, I hardly do any damage, I use marza's missle barrage to try and clear the enemy's fleet but they are just too much! AND somehow I have no clue what ability or faction is doing that, within 5 seconds all my capital ships/ titans abilities are disabled. So for the 5-6 minutes fight before I pull out due to heavy losses, I was not able to use a single ability. 
2) What is the best way to survive early rush by AI? They usually arrive around the 30 minutes mark. I usually have 2 star base up, 1 fully upgraded + 3 capital ships. My friend will have a vasari star base and a titan + 6-7 capital ships. But the AI fleet is just massive!
DD I read from the forum that I should use Big Red Button and overload star base to take out a big bunch on them. Is this the way forward? Will the overload damage friendly units as well?
3) Have anyone beaten 7-8(can't remember the maximum number) vicious AI before? What is the best way to do that using TEC and without rushing( I am not much a rusher).
Btw we started on 5 or 6 AI teamed together, but we couldn't stand up to their fleet at the 30 minutes point, the numbers of enemy ships are just staggering. 4 we are just about fending them off.