[raynor]

In the beginning of the game, fighters are INCREDIBLY powerful--especially if you mass produce them at all your colonies. IMHO, one of the best things about fighters is the fact that they don't affect your score or your maintenance costs. So, you can put a couple hundred of them at every wormhole leading into your empire. The early game equivalent of ships would make you MEE *WAY* too early plus the maint costs might strangle your empire.

This is a very minor note. But you don't need to use a carrier to send fighters through wormholes. Transports work just as well. (Or, minesweepers, or satellite layers). Of course, you can't attack a planet with fighters in a transport. But if you can capture or destroy/recolonize one planet in a system. Then, you can transport in fighters and transfer 1000 fighters per turn between your transport(s) / the planet and then launch them back into space. Once you have a sizeable group in space, you can send them to attack the planets.

Before the AI researches Point Defense cannons, your fighters are better off in small Groups so one weapon shot doesn't kill three or four of them. But once the AI has lots of point defense, I think you are better off sending them in very large Groups. Two Groups of 90 fighters launched from a planet can be quite devastating against a heavily defended planet with PD V's whereas you would lose them all if you launched them from a pair of light carriers.
(Of course, this tactic requires tons of micro management and is pretty tedious vs. just using ships.)