It actually failed because the whole squadron died, which is almost certain to occur if they're actually used.

Indeed, the mission can be won even if some freighters survive and gate out, as long as enough were killed.

I've proposed a solution to this a few times before - a squadron of Britannias would be perfectly balanced for this mission, and could actually be used without the certainty of failure. Just spawn Brits for the squadron and be a bit less generous with the number of freighters that can be left alive, and the mission is fixed.

Edit: In most recent stream, George managed to keep some alive, and supported buffing Centurions. That's probably better than switching them to Brits, as it keeps the level curve and allows other missions with Centurions to be more interesting. I should, however, note that the enemies encountered in this mission are generally tougher than those defending Ares Communes, so the 'destroy major ares station' mission that givers the player a Brit squadron should probably be adjusted to add some tougher defenses to communes(right now, the Brits can reliably complete the mission on their own).

Resolved: Ancient