OK, been on for a few missions as Romulan. tried Patrols while i contolled 5 ships, did not lose a ship in 5v5, but only made less than 150 and cost me over 100. tried the one where you need info off enemy ship in a 1v1, np. tried the one where you go to a listening post, 3v3, no prob.
Now, tried the one where you take out a minor base in an asteroid hex. 5v5. I drew a Fed CC+, a Fed Scout, and a Fed DD+. took them all out in about 8 mins, no lost ships, no major damage. Flew in 5 ship formation to the MINOR base. it has 4 Phaser4 and 4 Phaser3. Lost my lead ship at about 15 hexes from a single burst, before the plasmas got out. Lost a second ship after first volley of plasmas hit, on the base's second shot. Lost a 3rd ship on the 3rd firing sequence of the base. Managed to keep my 4th from being blown to bits, but took extensive damage.
Finished the mission, received mid 200 points.
Repurchaced my ships, resupplied, this is what it cost me to do so: 1185
I lost nearly 1K and I WON> now it was fun, but perhaps cost effectiveness means not running missions against any base of any sort IMO. Seems that you need not take many ships or the costs really can escalate. Please bear this in mind when you join in on server.
Just passing on info.