Possible to bring supply freighter with a fleet?

Just Slap some supply containers on a Ship...(I use light cruisers) maybee some solar colectors if you've got them. Build it, and add it to your fleet, and it will add its supplies to the rest of the fleet....Or you could just have them transfer supplies to the fleet from the transfer window....

also a good way is to build "emergency supply pods" on a supplyship and have a repairship with you. use it to refill the supply, transfer the supplys to the other vessles and the repairship will repair the used supply pods.

It is my ship designing policy that Attack ships should not waste space on supply storage - that's for dedicated supply ships as you're thinking. Furthermore, it is my policy not to bother with Basic Sensors on Attack ships - that's what a central 'command' ship is for (which has all that supply storage plus construction/repair and never engages combat itself).

Just remember to give that Supply ship a different task force to itself so it can run away separately to the rest of your fleet.

---Sig---
Playing Touhou games (Go here if interested . No, nobody else is that good/insane as that replay). No rush for SE V bug fixing.

Which works fine up to the point the enemy finds your supply and command ships and destroys them. Then your fleet is blind and low on supplies..

balance mod allows you to put supply and ordnance on freighters instead of cargo.

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an se5a is a ww1 fighter, it is also a car.

Yeah, if you're playing the Balance Mod you shouldn't have as many supply issues. If I have to send a fleet on a long attack mission, and for some reason cannot keep them supplied with emergency re-supply and repair ships, I end up scrapping them (firing on them) after their job is done.

After the attack I transfer all remaining supplies to a few of the least damaged/most valuable ships and scrap the rest...

I can't remember the last time I actually built a freighter.

Troops, population, supplies and eventually repairs.

I start with frigates if need be, and work my way up.

I usually end up with a slightly faster fleet that way.

I would drop basic sensors only on specialized ships to squeeze in a bit more carrying capacity.

Something tells me you're one of the most dangerous opponents here.

That'd be the fact that your tactic is startlingly similar to mine.
Similarities:
No Sensors or Supply on dedicated attack-ships.
COMMAND ships, with all the sensors, and some of the supply/refueling systems. (generally, because the Command ships evolved from Recon-in-force ships. thus, they can easily function independantly)

Differences:
85% to 90% of my fleet is not even designed with sensors. (Combat sensors and ECM don't count as a sensor to me, as they only help in combat)
My command ships are essentially lesser-armed versions of their normal brethren.
My Command ships tend to have either a Fighter or Drone complement.
Use of Dedicated Supply, Ordinance, and Repair ships.
LESSER command ships within my fleet, so that should the big ship go down, I'm hopefully not completely blind. (sometimes, I'll even have recon-drones instead.)

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I'll make one later.

I usually handle it buy making a small ship with nearly nothing but solar collectors. It can generate enough supply in one turn to fuel my ships.