[Joachim]

Here are some other cute ideas I have gleaned from the forums, some are similar to what you have already mentioned. None are original:

Use transport hulls for your early colony ships.
Load mies into colonisers for a quick defence.
When raiding randomly drop mines around the enemy system - that way they will just never know!
Change fleet target priorities to kill minesweeping/stellar/supply ships first.

J.