Was just reading one of the "Honor Harrington" books and thought of a trick that I can't use myself (it doesn't fit into the TC I've been slowly labouring on).
To wit; small "cheap" ships with no real armor or weapons that look and act like capitol ships. At the most primitive, these are basically shuttles given a mass profile that makes them show up on the radar as massive hostiles. At the more cunning, they actually have the graphic of powerful warships of the same fleet (in the interest of fairness, the latter might have the betraying mass signature of the shuttle/fighter they really are).
These are also useful for the player; kept in fighter bays designed for this weapon, these economical ships will harrass the enemy and draw much of their fire off the real fighters and the player ship itself. Remember, their offensive capability is nill. But the enemy won't know that, and will waste ammunition dealing with them!
Come to think of it, you could also create "missile pods" of extra-slow fighters with long-range missile armnament. Roll out the fighters and hold them out of the fight until you've designated a target for them...then everything will launch more-or-less at once in a missile wave that will hopefully swamp their point-defence measures.
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"I know the stranger's name."
Turandot