So you pick large ships that can't catch smaller ships, and just sit around because the larger ships lose CR slower?
Except maybe quad lance Paragon and some disposable Falcon (D)s, the large ships I use can send fighters to seek-and-destroy enemy ships, and fighters catch anything. Large ships do not need to catch enemy ships if they have killer homing missiles (i.e., fighters) that do it for them. That was why the end of my last post here reads
"Usually, I get lots of fighters and no one can play coward for long."There are only few things that can catch frigates: 1) other frigates and 2) fighters.
Since I use mostly clunkers, enemy frigates that are not pirates have an advantage over mine. If I match frigates with theirs, I take casualties, unless I outnumber them (which does not happen, or else they run away and I auto-resolve). Since fighters are weapons and do not clog fleet slots, they do not take casualties like ships do. Also, frigates have low peak performance, which is a burden in fights against endgame opponents like max level deserter bounties.
Also, even if I pilot a good frigate, like my starter Wolf, they still run away unless 1) I overextend on flux, then they charge and I will lose the flux war if I continue the attack, and I have trouble escaping, or more likely, 2) they retreat into more of their friends where I cannot win a fight against multiple targets.
High tech ships that need to use pulse lasers or blasters for hard flux have trouble winning flux wars even with max flux stats because energy weapons are generally inferior. Other ships may not have the speed to force a fight with similar-sized ships.
Remnant Lumen and Glimmer duos are highly aggravating to kill with Wolf or Medusa. With Drover or bigger ship (or Hyperion), not so much.
This is why I auto-resolve fights. Anything fast enough to catch the fast ships that flee is fragile enough to risk death from the enemy. I simply auto-resolve the fight and collect my free kills and spoils.
If all else fails, but I have more peak performance than the enemy, then waiting until they run out of gas is an option.
That doesn't sound smart or fun.
Waiting is not fun, but it is effective, sometimes the best strategy. This is why various tweaks were made, like Timid officers forbidden to NPCs, or phase cloak gaining time shift so that AI phase ships cannot stall as long.
I recommend a more balanced fleet composition if you want to catch those frigates and not let them retreat.
I would love it if they actually retreated so that I can auto-resolve them into the ground, but they do not retreat. They hang back and troll, just like Timid officers used to do. Against Remnant frigates, small ships I use have peak performance disadvantage, so that they can outlast my ship. Not if I use a bigger ship with fighters.
Small ships are not much help in endgame fights. They have low peak performance.
I know what works in 0.8 (and before).