I play as the Vasari and am starting to play vs. the hard AI 1on1 in preparation for trying a few online games.  I feel like colony rushing may be a good way to play the Vasari, but I'm looking for tips.

I'm thinking that the first cap has got to be the colonizer because how are you going to defend your colonizer frigate all the way across the star system?  Right?  The problem though is that the colonizer capship is not as strong so then don't you run into problems vs. the opponent's stronger capship???

The real strength here is the Vasari's abilities to get kanraks early.  So, I'm thinking take my asteroid, get a basic econ going, get kanraks and start pumping them til first fleet limit.  Then take the fight to the opponent, who should only have light frigates at that point.  Maybe one way to get around having a weaker capship is to use it with kanraks to take out all the frigates first and then take out the capship after??? 

I'm also thinking that once my ships are all the way across the star system it is going to be hard to reinforce in a timely manner, so I'm leaning toward upgrading health/damage ups (the first level ones) to try and strengthen my rush force?

My goal vs. the AI is to try and contain them until I can get a strong enough force w/siege cap/frigates using the colony/asteroid I rushed as a forward base to put the hammer down.

What do you think?