Sample endgame fleet from one of my saves:
Ships 1-15Ships 16-264 slots free for buying/salvaging new ships
I have 3 unofficered combat ships for a couple of reasons:
- A bit of additional force on the hardest battles
- Unofficered frigates can still help during pursuit battles, in the event I decide to manually fight one
- Sometimes I want to participate in a battle using a smaller ship, rather than spending the resources on deploying a Paragon
Granted, for the last point I could usually take one of my officers' ships, since they likely won't be deployed. (They may not always be captaining a ship I'd want to fly though)
The abundance of small support ships reflects my tendency to do things like use the same random Buffaloes I pick up early in the game all the way to the end (although I haven't done so here). They're available, they're good for carrying Surveying Equipment, and they provide capacity for all the loot I get when going on salvaging expeditions or fighting many major battles. (Yeah, I hold on to all the Metals I pick up)
Even in the pictured case, I could free up two slots by shedding the two Nebulae. I don't need the personnel capacity, and can afford to spend a bit more on any surveying I do.
I could also store the Valkyries when going salvaging and pick them up later when I actually want to raid/invade other planets, but then I'd have to remember to take them out of storage...