I bought Galactic Civilizations III two days ago (along with all of the DLC), and am slowly learning the basic gameplay mechanics.
Have just finished the Tutorial campaign (finally), but it was harder than I thought it would be, since Pirate ships kept sniping my Transport ships and thereby killing off my Legions. I initially tried to defend my Transports by moving them into the same hex as one of my combat fleets, but the Pirates seemed to ignore my combat ships and zero in on my transports. After many transport losses, I eventually just surrounded my transports with numerous combat fleets, so the Pirates couldn't break through, although that was rather cumbersome and expensive.
Am I missing something? Is there a better, more effective way to safeguard my Transports?