SE4: Point defense ships, like in WW2. Good idea?

[Dethgod74]

Hi folks,

I'm starting to run into races with either fighters (ftrs) or Capital Ship Missiles (CSM) and I'd like to know when playing in a turn base game, are point defense ships, ie ships primarily armed with point defense cannons (PDC) are a good idea. These were used to some good effect in WW2, with the Oakland class CLs and the Atlanta class CLs.
What I need to know is, will the limited AI that you can 'program' your ships with, would the PDC ships stay close enough to the main ships in the fleet to protect them.
With in the basic game, no mods, how much can you really 'program' single ships' AI ?

Thanks in advance!

Regards,

Rob aka dethgod74