Formations - what's your strategy

[rextorres]

I have read in these here forums that all ships in formation should be set to break formation -
also different players have different theories on what type of formation to choose.

For instance: I took over for someone in a PBW game and the player made a point of suggesting that I choose "spider" formation which is a spread out formation and that they break formation. In my experience, however, I have found that it's best for ships to stay in a formation that's as tight as possible. The reason for this is that the ships concentrate fire and provide mutual defense against seekers. I have been able to beat fleets twice as big that were spread out over the map.

So . . . I am curious why some players insist that it's advantageous for ALL ships to break formation (not just defenseless ships) - and what formation do you think works best.