Mission 7 is the really ugly one. Drone frigates and defenders around your resourcers and a capship group following the enemy mothership around blowing up pods is the only way to survive with a fleet intact (I ended up losing 2 support friagtes but nothing else).
Mission 8, which every walkthrough says is difficult, was a piece of cake. Then again. 4 drone frigates and 3 defenders plus an additional 10 multiguns makes short work of swarmers. And thanks for the MBFs!
You're right, that is an evil mission (7, I mean). I managed to get enough destroyers out in time to make it pretty easy, fortunately. I just killed pods with my frigate groups and then tried to salvage the swarmers, with moderate success.
It was fun having those to use on later missions, even if they tend to run out rather quickly.
I like how the MBFs on Mission 8 just kind of putter around and wait to be salvaged.
