Depends on what type of captain you are and what ship you are piloting.

In every case I recommend going into a heavy defensive stance when they hit attack pattern apha. This in-tells running most of your power through your shields and engines and activating defensive buffs. Once the attack patter alpha is over you immediately start an offensive strike.

If you're a good escort pilot, you want to skip the defensive maneuvering, keep your engines hot, put on the pressure and stay out of the frontal firing arch.

Being a romulan ship, you will also want to keep TSS or EPtS in your back pocket so you don't get destroyed by a HY Plasma Torp.