Capship combat is going fairly quickly at the moment from what I've seen. Took myself and Skyblazer three turns to take out an AF. My own Dread would have fallen next turn if anything else turned up with Skyblazer's caps not far behind. At the current speed, a single person's fleet could drastically change the tide of a battle, if it's still going on by the time they get there.
The smallest ship I've actually seen do anything is a Skipray Blastboat. I had twenty other fighters in a combat zone the turn before and not a single one has done anything other than take a few hits then blow up. Even the ones that survived more than one turn didn't do anything.
A suggestion I've got, being able to specify jump/move co-ords via keyboard, similar to how you order units. Would help with moving to a pre-arranged meeting point, especially if you haven't got an ally on visual.