Missile boats

Yeah, there is a big difference in efficiency between
a 26 point 4 mass FTL missile boat and a
16 point 2 mass non-FTL missile boat.

Chasing after small ships with other small ships
makes a lot of sense.  However, small ships are
just a cheap way to get more fire control.  The
reason they are effective is because they can
efficiently take missile boats down.

One of the benefits of having tenders is that it is
a lot easier to turn out a non-ftl 18 mass frigate
with 14 mass for weapons than a 28 mass cruiser with
14 mass for weapons.  A lot more facilities will be
able to turn out the non-ftl frigates.	My guess
is that most ship building facilities aren't geared
to producing 100 mass ships.  A lot more civilian
ship building plants could be converted to making
frigates than making cruisers.

In a campaign game I'd _cloak_ my tenders, establish
secret asteroid bases in my enemies system and then
cruise away for another load.  One tender load of
gunboats isn't very efficient, but shuttling them
into a system until you have three loads of gunboats
makes the cost of the tender much easier to bear.

Maybe we'd go commerce raiding with them...

Michael Sandy