Favorite trick in the game (spoilers possible)

[Puke]

wishing for a Cobalt Torpedo is a neat trick, but a REAL cheese monkey will wish for a NOVA CANNON.

a slightly more legitamate trick, is to use non-point defense weapons to target missiles. just pick a point in space, and fire. Beam weapons are good for this, as is the Micro Metorite Cannon.

A good way to take advantage of this, is to have a smaller ship constantly fireing sideways across the bow of your long range ship.

Or while you're wishing for things you shouldnt, a Flash Crater makes a very nice area-effect point defense weapon. Not good for much else, though.