I only played one PBW game long ago:
I decided to try an early-game strategy that I had picked up on the forums. Instead of building escorts and frigates, build small transports with satellite launchers and cargo. Fill them with sats armed with Capital Ship Missiles. Most early ships have either DUCs (too short-ranged to survive a duel with multiple missile sats) or CSMs (which can't target the sats at all). So your transports get into combat, drop their sats and run, and the enemy ship gets shot up trying to pursue the transport. Then pick up the sats again and move on. My entire navy consisted of these ships.
It seemed like a brilliant idea until I got in my first war. I couldn't figure out why my ships were dropping like flies. Then I looked at the combat footage...and saw that the transports weren't launching the sats at all.
It didn't take my opponent long to break through and destroy my home system.