[Fyron]

"Long range attack" will just make them charge forward and fire at the maximum range of the weapons mounted on them. AFAIK, SE4's combat AI will not keep them out at 12 squares distance if they have no weapons that can fire at that range.

Setting them to "don't get hurt" will cause them to flee to random corners, and not necessarily the same ones as your transports. Sometimes, you might even get all escorts fleeing to the SW corner, but all transports fleeing to the SE.

You cannot get any ship with a non-attack strategy to stay in a formation; as soon as "don't get hurt" comes into the picture, the ships will break formation automatically. With carriers, for example, you have one of two choices. One, give them weapons and watch them act as attack ships, staying in formation and charging forward. They will launch their fighters as they charge forward to certain doom. Two, give them no weapons, and they will break formation and flee to the corners of the map, launching fighters as they fall back.

I don't think SE4 has any AI strategy settings that will achieve what you want with any predictability.