I'm pretty new to this game but really loving it and starting to get the hang of things and strategies. Currently I'm playing the campaign through the Twilight interface. I'm on the Achilles' Heel mission of the Dread Lords campaign and I'm having some difficulties with it. Hoping someone can help. I've tried it about 3 times now and can't figure out how to win. I've tried the mission on Cakewalk and Normal (I put it to Normal thinking my teammates would come alive and do something in the game).

The problem I always run into is how to defeat the Dread Lords. The mission objective is to take the DL controlled planet Teth in the upper right sector. The DL ships are impossibly strong attack-wise with Beam weapons that are at 300 on some of their ships. Whenever they venture forth from their planet they destroy anything in their path. There is no stopping even one ship (usually some kind of battleship) that I can see.

Here's what happened one time. I tried building 3 Battle Axes and a transport and researched Logistics up to 15 so I could fleet the warships. While I was building and researching a Dread Lord ship attacked one of my newly colonized planets. He had 10 soldiers, I had like 2600 or there abouts but of course he had a huge advantage. Still I was able to hold him off. I was completely stunned because in other games they wipe out planets no problem. So, I finished researching my ships and techs and quickly moved to the planet Teth to take it only to see that he now had 4 ships in orbit. One of those ships had something like 260 Beams. He wiped out my fleet of 3 Battle Axes without breaking a sweat.

So, what am I supposed to do in this mission to win? Do I win by influence? In order to do that my understanding would be to place Influence starbases around his planet but of course all he has to do is launch one of his ships and boom they are gone. My teammates (there are 3 of them) do absolutely nothing and I can't figure out how to get them to attack Teth. When I click on the Attack somebody option in the trading screen a little box comes up that says Choose Race. But there is no race to choose in the window.

How do I get my teammates to do something?

Is this mission supposed to be won by Influence where I flip the planet to my side? Or is this a combat win scenario?

What should I be doing here?

Thanks for any input/advice