Every time I think I have this figured out, it throws me a new curve. I've read over and over that the AI attacks escorts before capital ships, and that it decides which is the escort based on attack vs defense. Something screwy just happened and I don't know if I got something wrong, if the game got it wrong or if I've just gone insane..

I built a frigate with 12 attack / 6 defense. 2 to 1 ratio

Then I built a heavy fighter that was supposed to be its escort, with 6 attack / 2 defense. 3 to 1 ratio.

When I put them into a fleet, the fighter went to the bottom of the list, where the frigate is supposed to be. Meaning, the game thinks I'm escorting a fighter with a frigate. That doesn't make any sense.

So I redesigned the fighter to give it a defense of 1, upgraded it and put them in a fleet again. This time it went to the top where its supposed to be. Then I built the same type of fighter, put it in a fleet and that one went to the BOTTOM, while its exact twin was on top, with the frigates in the middle.

What in the world??

While I'm on the subject, can I ask what the purpose is in figuring up the attack vs the defense in the first place? It should be pretty obvious I'm not escorting a horde of tiny hull vessels with one very large hulled vessel. Why not just consider the smallest vessels to be the escorts?