Actually, the Phalanx formations are probably the best ones from a purely strategic aspect now. If you have a small number of ships, they function exactly like Wall. If you have a large number of ships, they will all be placed centrally at the start of combat (well, up to 101 ships, at any rate).
It is generally always a good idea to set all strategies to Break Formation. Staying in formation very often causes ships to move out of weapons range, reducing the damage you can do in a turn.
Check out the Ultimate Strategies Mod for ideas on ship strategies (and to get some better formations in the game and all
).