Sorry if I wasn't clear!
I meant that Taking the Battle-level ship (the Primus) is dangerous.
As far as the Scouts...
... I stand by the Hull 6 statement. If you are facing the horde of scouts, he will almost certainly get redirects on his chosen targets. In that case, let's look at the hit rate difference between Hull 4 and Hull 6:
Hull 4: 1-(1/6 * 1/6) = 0.972
Hull 6: 1-(1/2 * 1/2) = 0.750
This means that the difference between Hull 4 and Hull 6 is 0.972/0.750 + 1.31, or 31%. That's just not as much as you might think. Interceptors are far more important than the difference between Hull 4 and Hull 6! This is part of the reason why the Drakh DDF is a powerful anti-Shadow vessel; it doesn't spend its defense on Hull, it spends it on other tricks.
... as to small ships? Yes, the horde of Scouts is dangerous, and the ship is a good ship, but the more you can out-sink it, the better. He hasno options below Raid. If you are competitive, and want to win, you can virtually assure yourself that if the Shadows want to get a shot with Scouts, they have to come to point-blank range before your primary combat ships have moved. You should (especially with Agile) be able to get shots.
... also on the side of small ships ... Beam dice tend to run very hot, or very cold. As has been noted on the other threads, the standard deviation on the Beam systems is huge. Taking small ships means that if his dice run hot, they do not inflict too much extra damage, hey just overkill the target. It's much worse to have a beam system roll double its dice in hits against a Battle-level ship than against a Patrol or Skirmish-level ship. And, when the dice run cold, the Skirmish-level ships will probably live though it just fine.
