[Torquemada Coteaz]

Escorts are dead useful.
That quote in the rulebook about the swarm of whatchamahoozits is absolutely right.
Plus they make nice meat shields or just to force target priority and such (and are much more expendible than cap ships)

And, generally, I dont't like to keep too many battleships around.
Mostly I use them for the fact that they are 1-hit rockers, and for the Imperials they shoot up to twice as much as cruisers.
However, a BS costs about 2 cruisers, which combined have more guns (as long as you are in range) and more health than the BS's

Edit: ImageShack is a free image hosting website, and I know many people use it.
Though, having jut realized that one of the images in my sig, which was ImageShack, had crapped out for some reason, I don't entirely recommend it