Why Don't Colonials Use Large Ships Together More?

Near the height of Tempest Invasion

Now that naval balance discussions seem to be the main topic again and enough time has passed since this operation, I wanted to give my own opinion on the issue as a fellow naval LARP enjoyer. First, I wanted to use an example from 2 days ago, when Wardens launched a naval invasion of Tempest Island with a fleet of 1 Battleship, 4 Frigates, 1 Longhook, and at least 1 Nakki (probably more off intel). During this naval invasion, the Colonials responded with 1 Trident and 1 Destroyer, both of which were sunk. The Trident, which was the first to respond, got spotted by sonar outside the Iris seaport and was quickly engaged and sunk by 2 Frigates and 1 Nakki. The Destroyer was spotted on Intel, leaving Endless into Fingers to QRF a Frigate, but again was quickly QRF'd by 2 Frigates and 1 Nakki and sunk. The reason I decided to make this post is because of the way these ships responded.

Throughout this entire war and basically in general, I can only remember 2 instances I've seen Colonial naval ships roll out in force. The first was a landing attempt in Fishermans, and the second was a Battleship leaving out of Origin. All the other times I've been a part of an encounter with a Colonial ship, it has been alone. While on the Warden side, every time I've been a part of a Frigate sortie, there has almost always been a Nakki somewhere, either as support or hunting other ships. For example, take the Destroyer that was sunk during the Tempest naval invasion. While it may have thought it would be engaging the Frigate alone in a more favorable 1v1, it was actually being baited into the firing arc of a Nakki that was there supporting the Frigate. What I wanted to highlight here is the use of multiple ships against one enemy ship.

Here's where my confusion over Colonials not using large ships together begins. While the Colonial Navy did respond to the naval invasion fleet in Tempest, there was about an hour difference between the arrival of the Trident and the arrival of the Destroyer. I heavily respect the Trident & Destroyer crew for at least trying to do something and not being scared of the probable suicide mission they were embarking on against a much larger Warden Fleet. However, I feel like their chances of survival, or killing a warden's large ship, would have been dramatically increased if they had sailed out to meet the Warden fleet together. Again going back to the Tempest naval invasion, the Trident remained completely undetected from any Frigates until it tried to sail up the Iris canal. It got extremely close to torpedoing the Frigate shelling the Iris seaport, and if it had remained hidden for a few more moments, I believe they would have gotten it off. Now imagine if instead, the Destroyer sailed into Fingers as a distraction while the Trident either went for the Longhook, Battleship, or even sat on the border and waited for our Frigates to cross.

Now I know that there's a lot to be desired with how the Trident currently operates, but why not try and set up these ambushes to try and catch Warden ships unprepared? Anytime a Colonial ship is spotted on intel, whether it's the Telephone Frigate or CAF submarine, there's almost a guaranteed chance that at least one warden ship is going to respond (CAF even sailed all the way to Linn of Mercy to kill a Destroyer). Again, going back to the Tempest Invasion from before, even after the operation was well over and the Longhook was already safe at home, when a Destroyer was spotted lurking around the Fingers border, ships that had just spent hours out at sea supporting a landing operation and were about to dock at their dry dock for repairs immediately set sail for the Destroyer until it was confirmed to be back in Origin (2 Frigates, 1 Nakki).

That's what makes me the most confused. In about 50% of the Frigate operations I've been on that ended up killing a Destroyer, there was also a torpedo hole present in said Destroyer. Now I know I definitely missed some naval engagements from this war, so I'll definitely be missing some context, but this is a trend I've seen war after war. That's why I wanted to try and ask for the Colonial opinion.

TLDR: There was a naval invasion on Tempest Island by Wardens. Colonial's response was fragmented, and I believe it could have been better if they had sailed together against a much larger naval force. Sailing out in force with large ships is a practice that's already common on the Warden side and proven to work, and I believe it will lead to more winning naval engagements for Colonial as well.