ok, i've been experimenting with a variety of tactics, and one of the ones i have been recently trying is the HC spam. ive been doing it with vasari so far as they have the strongest HC's but i'll try the other races as well. basically i build all your resource extractors and a capital ship factory right off the bat. i then build a space whale (colony ship) which i send off to grab the closest and weakest defended asteroid or planet that my scouts have found. i then salvage the cap ship factory and build 5 military labs which should fill all my home planet's logistical slots. meanwhile my space whale should be capping its second system and i can star pumping out HC's.
i've experimented with this in a few games vrs AI and it works fine, they dont respond very fast usually so it gives me plenty of time to get my fleet formed. after that it's simply a matter of taking them down while they are still trying to make lrms and other frigates.
however, how does HC spam work on multiplayer. on small 1v1 maps i think it is a bit slow and is very vulnerable to various rushes. on team vrs team matches i think it might do pretty well as your buddies can cover for you as you get your fleet up and running and once it is built you can cause a lot of damage.
just wondering what people's experiences is with HC in different types of games.