What if instead of making LF, you put that res into Cruisers?

This usually happens early game when cruisers are the most used ship, LF in quantities of less than 1-2K + don't have the same overwhelming fodder effect and get destroyed by all the cruiser fleets flying so they aren't that useful at first.

Also I like cruisers in the late-game as they are good fodder for fleets with good amount of BS and dessies as both have no RF against them + most people build 1-2mn LF to go along with their fleet, as well as rippers building LF fodder for their DS.

@pirate andy can definitely testify on the power of cruisers.

Cruisers are probably the least useful in the middle-game where decent-sized fleets are flying around with large amounts of BCs.

I would not recommend a fleet with only cruisers and absolutely no LF as once again it's all about balance, ratios and the usage you intend to make of your fleet. You need some LF to squash the BC rapidfire, but I do recommend going higher on the CR : LF ratio than people usually do.

As Iceman says it’s all about balance. Also about what you want to use your fleet for.

Day-to-day cruisers aren’t that useful in massive numbers. They are good to have for certain hits. They come into their own in huge battles and defensively they make you much harder to profit from. But for most people, who just want to do a bit of fleeting, their res is probably heavily invested elsewhere. LF are massively useful and many fleets have loads of them, which is why I like mass cruisers. It makes your build a bit different and lethal to those fleets.

My advice. See what hits you do day to day and build for that. Fodder vs defence, small fleet kills with bc. Build to maximise those profits then if you get to the top and want to kill big fleets then worry about a true power ratio.

Most of all build to have fun