Fighters! What are they good for?

[Q]

I like fighters very much and use them heavily. But a word of warning: If your enemy has ships with lot of PDC and phased polaron beams a combat with fighters alone might turn out very bad for you: I lost about 2500 heavy fighter against an AI empire with such designed ships! If you combine fighters with ships the polaron beams will probably be used against the ships and therefore the death toll of the fighters is much less.