How do you play naval EC without losing lions?

i will use my last battle as my example. it was a loss, but i had a battle activity of 65%, played for about 42 minutes until the end, destroyed 5 enemy players including some major achievements - an HMS Hood with my Aoba and a russian dreadnought (dont remember which) with my Akizuki, but

i only ended in the green because i had a 500% sl booster on.
i earned 99,339 with a respawn cost of 28,698, if it were not for the 500% booster, i wouldve only earned 19,827 lions, which would have been a loss

i dont want to stop playing this mode but i lose money on it, what does everyone do to play this mode sustainably?

Spawn convoy at beginning of the match, spawn dds until you have enough for a light or heavy cruiser spot the carrier before you kill it, work with the team around you join EC CREW the biggest EC FOCUSED Alliance on War Thunder. we can help you earn better WT-EC-Crew