What are some good strategies for using fleets to guard starbases in Dread Lords?  Up until now, I have been deploying small fleets of 3 or 4 vessels at each starbase.  This works well (so far) against the major civilizations as generally my picket ships detect enemy fleet movements in time to allow me to merge all the small fleets in a section into larger fleets.  However, I have discovered the hard way that this strategy backfires when a huge fleet of Pirates appear in a sector and quickly wipe everything out.  If I am lucky, I can evacuate a few precious fleets/ships out of the sector while they are busy destroying my starbases and larger fleets there.  Would it be better if I put one large fleet in each sector?  What fleet deployment strategies has anyone used that are effective against both major civilizatons and pirate fleets?