[Arkcon]

The fighters pool their weapons and hit points so larger Groups are better. If you think of each group as a mini-ship, you'll see you want the larger group.

But...many smaller Groups swarm around, prevent ships from moving and consume point defense fire. So there seems to be a trade off, but...

As the ships become larger, with better shields, and better point defense, and fleets get bigger, fighters Groups really begin to lose out.

But that is just against the A.I., human opponents will see right through your plans early on, build a couple of point defense dominated ships, to support their attack ships, and slice right through your carrier Groups.