So, the game is nice to the players in that it lets them start with a ship; one of the most expensive, and impressive, possessions even a group of players is ever likely to have, but, even if you want another ship, it could take a considerably longer time to scrape up the resources to acquire one, leaving you a lone wolf, for possibly the entire game. I get that that can work for the players, but what about NPCs? How often should an NPC ship be a lone encounter? What's a good way to decide if they should actually have escorts?

I know that it could be sort of hard on the players, if they favored a smaller, less gun-laden ship, if every time they run into other pirates, or worse, they always outnumber the players, but then you might argue they made that choice. Should they expect to run into lone Ork cruisers, or should the bigger ships usually have escorts? Should the smaller ships travel in pairs? In my case, the ship in question is a potent cruiser, escorted by an armor-hauling destroyer (raider), so I wouldn't be too worried, but I don't know how often the other ships in the Expanse are as likely to be strapped for resources, like a dynasty might, and realistically travel alone, or if most encounters, in the void, should be against small groups of ships, rather than a lone light cruiser. Not sure how typical pirates, raiders, or the like, are likely to work, but I wouldn't want the space battles to seem even easier. On the flip, as I said someplace else, it seems unfair to step up everyone else, just because the PCs finally managed to succeed enough to afford more, but you don't want the challenge to disappear, either.

This was a ramble-on post, sorry. How do you usually justify the quantity size of enemy craft, in space battles, against your players, who may, or may not, have escorts, or even a non-combat (comparatively) vessel?

I don't consider my pc's strength. I favor turning wheel campaigns and track the strength and reinforcement rate of forces for each faction. if my players stumble into a pirate nest, they better turn tail and run. I spread point allotments out in a realistic faction, making task forces of a strength based on their mission and their faction's resources. escorts travel in groups of at least three, preferably more, at least two different types if the faction can pull it off. light cruisers have at least a pair of escorts. cruisers have either a light cruiser and a pack (3 or 4) frigates, two light cruisers or a big group of escorts. battle/heavy cruisers always have a light cruiser and a pack of escorts, maybe two of each. grand cruisers always have at least a pair of light cruisers, or a cruiser and a big pack of escorts. battleships are always with at least two cruisers and a large pack of escorts, usually with a light cruiser or two and possibly a heavy/battle cruiser. depending on the size of the station they might have anywhere from two to a dozen system ships for defense.

As you can tell, fleet actions are a popular thing with my group. the current game's fleet stands at 1 repulsive grand cruiser, 1 overlord battlecruiser, 1 styx heavy cruiser, 1 gothic, 1 slaughter, 2 lunar cruisers, 2 dauntless light cruisers, 1 gladius, 3 sword, 1 firestorm frigate, 2 cobra and 1 nova destroyers. 1 universe mass conveyor, 2 goliath factory ships, seven escort size transports, two slightly armed troop ships. usually the fleet is broken up between various schemes, and never go anywhere without an escort as most of them are stolen from enemy factions that my players are too early in the game to have eliminated. most of the transports are tied up supporting an industrial trade network capable of supporting such a large fleet, but my players usually roll with the repulsive, overlord, slaughter and gothic, along with the sm escorts and the cobras. not a huge fleet, but the combined firepower of the heavy ships means that the enemy has to be prepared for a full-scale fleet engagement if they stand a chance of surviving.

I can see where you are coming from, I just don't want the enemies to seem stupid (a lone cruiser, unescorted) needlessly, but I also wouldn't want to punish said players, who might've favored a smaller ship, while getting more than one can be prohibitively expensive, on their part. When the Players are meant to be some of the richest, most well-connected people in the sector, with potential resources to rival a planetary governor, it might seem weird that every military, pirate, or xenos threat has several ships, while the players find it difficult to maintain such assets. A little bit of the "rarity of ships" this game occasionally tries to play also worked into my thoughts.

Like I said, I wouldn't want the space threats to seem pants-on-head crazy, but nor would I want to punish the players for the system's potential limitations (difficulty of maintaining a small fleet, especially early), or their not-bad choices; I'd usually be of a mind to take the cruiser, at start, and work to build the PF up, as raising PF is a considerable point of the game, regardless, and a warship helps that goal, but I can see why others might take a transport, or a frigate, and start with more money/assets.

Thanks for your thoughts