[MisterBenn]

Slick: I have tried to determine the Task Force leader with no luck. Even if you remove all ships from the task force except for the single ship you'd like to be leader, I found when re-added they retake the same positions in the task force as before they were deleted. I got the impression that maybe the first ever ship added to the task force determines the leader... if so then maybe deleting the task force and recreating it may help, if you add the intended leader in first and your left button holds out for all the clicking required!

Q: I've experimented quite a bit so far, and I believe that Core, Picket and Escort merely influence the positions within a task force formation, and have no bearing on engagement behaviour - they just all follow the Task Force strategy and more or less stay in that position unless that tactic includes "Break Formation Immediately".

In general I have much less success with formations compared to breaking formation. While in formation the edge ships obsess over maintaining the shape of the ranks while the front craft get hammered by the enemy; when the formation is broken your starting formation degenerated into a big clump of ships that while is as ugly as hell, concentrates so much more firepower on the enemy at any given time. I hear adjusting the tightness of ships within a Task Force formations is possible, and without doubt the introduction of area-effect weapon types would quickly deter people from clumping their ships together like that.