Listen to the kitty! He knows of what he speaks!
Actually those are pretty much the tactics I use as well for those missions.
The next set of revisions (not for DOE obviously) is in the works, and includes
- some variability in the number of escorts for the courier (randomly 1-3 rather than always 3)
- improved prestige calculations (as in "less-likely-to-give-you-diddly" and lower loss penalties) for some of the missions
- more enemy space missions with smaller numbers of AI (still the capability to draft any humans around on either side, but won't automatically fill those slots with AI all the time)
- a "3 on 1" coop mission where you and your buddies try and take out a single large enemy ship (could be human controlled)
Ummm ... I'm sure there was more, but it's before 7am on a Friday morning and the brain feels like goo.
Let me know what else you think is needed/desirable/undesirable,
dave