Annihilator pods are great too. A single pod not so much, but several ships each with several pods can create a sort of "shield push" effect when they volley a cloud of rockets. The enemy will usually recoil, allowing you to get a little bit of control over battlefield placement. Given how amazingly crap the AI is at moving well in the battlespace, it's nice to have an option to sort of corral the enemy or at least hold them back into a line so you can more effectively bring your damage dealing weapons to bear. Annihilators do almost no damage, ultimately, but they are the only reliable way I've found to keep enemy frigates mixed in with their main fleet instead of flanking my AI-controlled ships. And because of that, it makes targeted hits on the most dangerous ships of a fleet easier, and also significantly increases the usefulness of my PD systems.