I'm vasari loyalist player and i played many hours in single player and now started to play on ironclad. My strategy is to research STTC as fast as i can, it usually takes about 15 munutes and trying to colonize many planets by two evacuators. I usually play in medium large,large, huge maps only and acctually defeated many players. But today i played 3 games and in each of them, my opponent send corvette/frigate and one cap ship fleet into my planets in about 5-11 minutes and i can't defend from his attack, because i don't have any weapons lab, so i can't build starbases, my cap ships are away-trying to colonize planets....
So what to do ? If I build weapons labs first and research STTC in late game, then it won't be so amazing playing with VL... I like VL, because of STTC, it brings hole new play style.
Ok, first, your strategy for researching STTC ASAP is quite interesting, but thoroughly flawed, hence why you basically got owned by other players with an actual fleet. The major problem that I see is that STTC leaves the planet barren and unable for the collection of tax income. This means that although you do get a quick boost in your economy, in the long run, you're going to be screwed, as is practically everyone else.
Two: I am curious as how you have been surviviing when playing online when you say that you research technology only found in the Empire tree. As with all the races, you cannot survive without expanding your military! If you spend the first 15 mins researching STTC without building any kind of fleet support (or researching any kind of fleet support) then you are going to get hammered by anyone on your borders. Unless you're in the eco spot (which in this case you should be worried about trade ports and feed, not STTC), you will be overrun quite quickly by your enemies who will have far superior forces.
Three: I think that I can honestly say that it is standard that you only have one capital ship within the first 15 mins of the game (and actually later); you don't really need two. What this cap is, is personal preference. However, in your circumstance, just send a migrator. The reason for this is that cap ships are expensive and actually quite easy to destroy with a fleet of LFs or corvettes (a spam, which is quite common online). What I'm trying to say is that those 3k cred, 400 metal, and 250 crystal can be put to far better use, especially early in the game for VL. For example, use those to research SBs, that way you at least have something to back you up in case you find yourself being attacked! Vasari SBs are devastating because they are mobile within a gravity well (and outside for VR). Take advantage of that!
It seems like you have focused on only one tool in the Vassari's arsenal. Broaden your view! There are other advantages to VL besides STTC. Find them, exploit them, and play a couple of games. Then see how you handle your enemy's retaliation.
to you KSSSWM, great post.
As a Sins veteran, I've learned a lot since vanilla and Rebellion is a lot more diverse in terms of mid-late game strategies, but the basic early game is usually the same as it has been since the original release.
Here's my 2 cents on this, assuming you're not doing 1v1, or a smaller map, that's a completely different kettle of fish altogether:
STTC is not a game-winning aspect of VL. It usually helps when denying an enemy of a key planet (although you lose it too) or giving a quick boost to your economy to build a fast defense fleet. As KSSSWM said above me, it is far more effective to get trade and refineries to maximize profit.
Now, onto my advise.
First off: SCOUT. This applies to any strategy Scouting is very important for all factions, and for Vasari in particular because you can see neutral extractors this way. Your scouts can take those in case you didn't know. Fight for those. Vasari ships are expensive, and any additional income is always a plus. The enemy fighting for them too? Send supporting ships. I've seen huge fights break out over this before, and as hilarious as that is, it's sometimes worth it.
When your scouts are't grabbing up neutrals, have them on auto-explore and keep a steady stream of replacements/new scouts coming. What good is a massive fleet if you don't have the intelligence on your enemy to use it effectively? You don't want to jump into a minefield or a starbase unprepared, do you?
Moving on.
As VL (just Vasari in general actually), I usually focus on offensive expansion, most of the time.
You're usually quite a few jumps from an enemy on the maps you seem fond of, and have an ally around the same distance away. This gives you room to breathe, but you can't just relax. Be swift and aggressive with your expansions.
Start with building an Egg (Evacuator) as your starting capital ship, and a weapons lab to research Assailants. Most of the time, you don't need to invest in Skirmisher LFs, because they are usually considered a poor choice by most players. Now remember, you don't have to worry about fighting enemy players/AI right away, so you don't need a powerful starting cap. Plus, the Egg is considered the second best colony cap in terms of abilities and firepower, (TEC Akkan is the best economically) next to the Advent Mothership.
Split your forces, send your cap to a nearby asteroid or dwarf, and around 5 Assailants to another lightly defended planet of your choice, with a Migrator waiting to come in after the fight. Sometimes you get unlucky and have to make a few extra ships to accompany your cap to take deserts or terrans, but not always.
If you get screwed and have to research Ice/Volcanic colonization very early, build the imperial labs as well as the weapon lab at your home world and get going as fast as you can. This setback can cost you a lot of time if you're not careful.
Now, after heading out, clear the militia opposition in one of two ways:
Kill everything to maximize EXP for your cap ship.
OR
Kill siege frigates/LRFs and make a couple turrets to kill the remaining militia, ad leave to continue your expansion. You can (and probably should) scuttle these for resources, or leave them to expand defense later.
After you get the first asteroid, build another weapons lab here, research corvettes, and add a few of them to your Assailant force. They help with drawing fire and killing siege/LRM frigates.
As you take planets and upgrade their infrastructure, add more ships as you see fit. Replace your losses too.
Taking these early allows for a good economy to fund a decent number of ships (Assailants mostly and possibly carriers later in this early game stage, diversifying my fleet more later) to take planets from enemies. Vasari can be a deadly force to reckon with early on if you do what you should.
After you build up as many planets as you can, you'll end up with a decent fleet of LRF and Corvettes. Now it is time to start actively scouting the enemy.
Chances are, a border has been created between you and your enemy. Build a few factories on this border planet to help with loss replacement and reinforcing your attacks. This allows for a much more swift response to spam of any kind. Usually around 20-30 corvettes can buy you enough time to make a better counter to anything, because they tend to counter popular spam decently, like fighters and LRFs.
When you're ready, pick your first target and send in a number of ships you think will be enough to take the planet. Don't send in everything, because enemies (human players in particular) usually assume that what you attack with is all you've got, but when you bring in more if you need to, it can cause them to flee. Keep more ships coming as you attack, 5 Assailants here, a few corvettes there, maybe a couple carriers if they have a lot of LRFs/strikecraft. Keep up the pressure, if they flee, send some ships after them while you clean up with your cap. Aggression is a powerful weapon. If you seem fearless, they're less likely to attack back.
I also like to build some siege frigates (a few cause they are pricey at take up a lot of fleet supply) to harass the enemy at undefended worlds. This is popular tactic used by the AI, and it's very effective against us humans. It causes us to have to allocate a few ships to stop the bombing, and in turn causes us to shift from focusing on anything else, like ship building, research, planet taking, etc. Works even better if you send a few supporting ships to help destroy structures and defend your bombing.
You can also send in some siege frigates with your attack forces, and use them to either assist with bombing or send them ahead with your ships after the enemy flees to really put the pressure on.
This is basically all you need to do to wipe out your nearest foe, and once you do that you can focus on helping allies if they need it, composing a fleet to counter the remaining enemies, fortifying choke points, building a better economy, the list goes on. You just need to get out of that early game to really do anything else. To survive is to adapt. Don't go into a game with any particular strategy set in stone. You can't win every game if you play the same each time, especially on randomly generated maps.
Obviously you want to utilize the Vasari Loyalist's ability to go mobile. If you want to keep this strategy, I think the way to look at the above advice is: "going all-out mobile early is not very safe"
There are many great features available to you once you register, including:
Sign in or Create Account
