I had an epic series of battles against them as my first contact. Actual first contact was a hapless survey ship getting blown up 2 jumps from Sol about 5 years after a Newtonian start.
In response I sent a squadron of six destroyers, my most powerful (and only) type of warship, armed with one main laser cannon and two twin smaller laser turrets for. Attempted a stealth run, but around 40 of the fighters closed in before I even knew what hit me. Untrained crews didn't get off a single shot.
Next battle a few years later I brought a mixed fleet of about 20 ships and 5 different designs, including a few prototypes and ships specifically designed for anti-fighter roles. This time we came in hot, though by now the fighters numbered around 100, making me kind of go oh crap. I brought two missile cruisers, but after expending all the ammo I brought we destroyed four and damaged four more. . . I panicked and headed back for the jump point. They caught up and took out my Gen-1 ships, but amazingly my PD turrets took them all out with the loss of only 7 ships total. It was then easy to mop up the rest of the system, including using the big guns to outrange the slower, but bigger enemies.