Lots and lots of bombers. I'm not a particular expert on the vasari, but they probably have some ability that mollifies armor or increases damage output to a target as well (the Egg's nano-disassembler comes to mind, but I'm sure there are others). You want to avoid allowing small ships into the SBs range, since debris vortex will suck those ships into its own hull points. If their main fleet is elsewhere, and there are two jump points into the grav well, an effective tactic is to have a carrier group at each jump point, jump in with one and lure the SB towards you, but jump out just before it reaches your carriers while simultaneously jumping in the other group.

If the AI has a large fleet guarding that base, you can bet that elsewhere, a vunerable planet exists. 

Leave that planet to the AI and take everything else.  Several super cannons surronding that planet will turn anything to dust.

its a late game situation against an AI. the answer to this kind of thing is almost always Kostura Cannons. 

 

 

To N3rull-Dude, lighten up. I'd like to remind everyone, before a flame war starts on a POTENTIALLY USEFUL thread, that it's a game. It's not your life, so get over the egos and the hostility. Treat it like a problem, not someone trying to make your life miserable.

Done preaching now. Okay, the problem, to restate, is that you have a 23k star base, probably all three weapons upgrades, and ? frontal shields in a system, that, for whatever reason, you HAVE TO HAVE. Now, as the TEC or the Advent, the answer is obvious, anti-structure frigates and bombers. Whee, obvious solution. As the Vasari, however, you have no anti-structure frigate and it takes too many bombers to really be worthwhile. So, let's go with both scenarios.

1.) You can ignore it

Ignoring it, if possible, is probably a good answer. Just go kick his butt somewhere else. Unfortunately, as N3rull pointed out, sometimes this is a bad idea, if your core worlds are one jumpr from this Starbase. As the Vasari, you have Phasegates. I'm assuming this is late game, and you can afford 1, phase gates, 2, a defensive fleet, and 3, four or five starbases. Just put a starbase and phase gate around the vulnerable worlds, or combine them with the phase gate tech for the starbase, and get a defensive fleet. Juicy world problem solved. Your fleet is also one jump away from any of your vulnerable worlds. Meanwhile, you can go annihilate him elsewhere.

2.) You can't ignore it

A few possibilities. One, you have your kostura cannon, which you then shoot him with. His fleet is in bad shape and probably retreats when you jump in, leaving you free to take out the starbase. Alternatively, you can make a fleet of Assailants, Enforcers, Overseers, and Transporters, heavy on the Overseers, with, of course, an Egg, and just duke it out with the damn thing. Not being able to ignore it is much harder, of course, but if it's a choke point, then do the phase gate/starbase thing, and wait until you can afford a cannon, possibly raiding his worlds that are  a dozen jumps away with a light, fast force, maybe Assailants/Sentinels with the Marauder for quick escapes (Yes, I know, it's junk, but it does speed up the fleet). You could also jump in four or five Ruiners and lay mines all over the place. That's more annoying than it is effective, but it could be enough to give your fleet the edge it needs. Mostly, the 'You can't ignore it' tactics boil down to stalling and waging a war of attrition.  The other thing you can do with the cannon, which I can't believe I forgot until now, is to shoot the assumed Kostura cannon at one of his core worlds, jump your fleet there, and do as much damage as you like.

For both of these strategies, the key is to remember the Vasari's advatadge in remaing mobile, and to use it against the stationary defenses. Remember, averything is situational, so don't plan on there being a 'By the book' offense for every situation.

Alright, I think I covered all the points that were made, by both sides. If I missed something, point it out, and I'll be happy to think about it and post a reply. I realize that my tactics for not ignoring it are a bit lacking, but honestly, there's not as much you can do, but there is ALWAYS an option, or else you've already lost.

a] Mind he's also Vasari. If you have phase stabz, why can't he have them as well?

b]  jumping behind enemy lines is hardly a really clever idea. You're sending your fleet into a remote place, cut off from reinforcements, surrounded by his culture, his production facilities, his phase stabz... It takes a very well scouted and coordinated attack to actually cause more damage to the enemy than yourself.

c] Remember everything costs money. You can't throw three kosturas out of your pocket and expect he never had those 24000 credits you spent on'em. If you bought 3 Kosturas, it means your enemy already has an advantage (his starbase costs half of what you paid for kosturas, which means more money is in his fleet).

Does the Kostura actually do anything to starbases?  It didn't seem like it . I fired at a few star bases and all it did was pulp my fleet.  I guess it also makes the area a phase stabilizer but not for sure how long it does it for and if it takes a while for it to work. 

Either way seems like a fully defended area with an Orkulus (and possibly repair bays and hangar defenses etc etc) is going to be near impossible to take out considerin ghow long it takes you to upgrade your orkulus even with the "build faster in enemy territory" thing.

One kostura really isn't going to do much against a fully upgrade orkulus.  In fact 10 kostura cannons aren't going to do much against a fully upgraded orkulus.  If this is going against the AI, the starbase won't use deflector shield.  They really need to fix the AI for using abilities.  I think the main problem isn't really the starbase, but really the fleet supporting it.  A orkulus is a tough nut to crack by itself.  You can't recommend bombers because what if the supporting fleet has 50 carriers with fighters and flaks to support it?  Taking this planet's defenses head on is a huge obstacle and I think the best way is to bombard it using kosturas.  Not to damage the starbase, but to damage the fleet and the support structures like the repair bays and phase missle launchers.  Jumping behind the enemy's lines may or may not solve the problem because we don't know the overall strength of fleets on both sides.  What if he jumps there with a sizeable fleet and runs into more starbases and meanwhile the enemy vasari launches attacks on his world also.  It could turn into a huge mess.

If HE has a starbase with max upgrades, then YOU can have a starbase with max upgrades too. How can either player get past this unstoppable stalemate? The only solution is to use the Kostura cannon, dump mines on the run, and try not to get raped.

Gravity mines will hit an Orkulus, and can somewhat slow down enemies chasing you. They probably have too small a radius (hit all targets) to do much good on the run, though. Not only that, but he can see you coming (top tech phase radar), and can plan accordingly.

Why does the Vasari starbase have the ability to destabilize phase space? This ability is primarily designed so that players are punished for ignoring an IMMOBILE starbase. The Orkulus is mobile. It shouldn't have the ability to get in your face, and then punish you for running away. That's just too much, and probably the main reason why attacking/avoiding a vasari starbase is SO tough.

Lots of meat to throw around ^^.

It all matters. Vasari have best toys to mess up your behind enemy lines jumpfest:
- Phase stabilizers allow him to phase jump reinforcements wherever you are going. If you've jumped from planet A to B and now are jumping from B to C because your fleet is at B, then his reinforcements can go directly from A/M/N/H/L/Y/Z to C. You will have a nice welcome party.
- Vasari have the best anti-harassment hangar defense upgrade. Locks out your strikecraft in a huge area for 30 seconds. So bombers aren't likely to oneshot his phase jump inhibitors in 5 seconds. You'll need to move your fleet in to kill it, that's valuable time and effort that slows your raid.
- Overseers have the generally useless jump degradation. If you have teh Kostoorah, then he may have jump degradation done. Throwing in one Overseer into every system that is connected to where you are will make you jump half as fast. The same fleet that you just ran away from will be waiting for you at your destination.

And the Marauder gets gangbanged. Very good business, killing a few structures to leave a lvl6 cap ship to die. No matter how kewl the distort gravity is, one lone lvl6 cap will die in enemy territory.

That's a bit incorrect.
You don't have to build 8 upgrades to that Orky to make it very badass. 3 Defense and 2 offense upgrades are enough to make a hardly scratchable, badly stinging SoB.
Secondly, all he needs to field the thing above is two weapons labs, while you need 8 weapons (kostura) and 5 imperial (phase stabz). A bit uneven if you ask me.

I have a personal shrink .
Seriously, I am fond of discussing things. However, some people always tend to respond around the subject. Instead of helping a person how to do what he asked for they tend to respond with what a fool would ever want to do that anyway sort of answers. That's pumping my blood pressure. I know that a poorly placed SB can be circled, but sometimes you HAVE to kill it and responses as mentioned above don't help at all and what's worse, they are often written in a sarcastic way which inclines that the OP is a fool.

 

I'd also like to address people saying Kostura doesn't do anything to Starbases.
Kostura isn't meant to kill the starbase. It is meant to kill the fleet around it and turn off other tactical defenses OR allow you a phase jump deep behind his starbase.
That the Kostura can do, but I still think the enemy should abuse the fact you're building superweapons instead of defenses/fleet. He, after all, just spent 12k-ish credits on something that you can hardly scratch, which blocks your direct way into his worlds and gives him a safe foothold into your worlds, while you're building cannons that won't stop the enemy raping your territory.

Sorry for making your blood boil, N3rull, but if a starbase is fully upgraded and well placed against a direct assault, there's not much you can do about it. 

It kind of sounds patronizing but the best advice to destroy tough starbases is not to let them get upgraded enough to stand up to a Vasari SB. 

On medium and larger maps, there are multiple phase lanes and it costs loads of money and rescoirces  to put a fully upgraded starbase at each entrance to the empire. Much more than a few Kotsura cannons.

incredible analogy! ahaha

 

and also, how do you know when a starbase is using frontal shield? I can never tell...does it have an animation?

Not really true. 12k credits is 30-ish assailants. 30 assailants are toilet paper for that 2-attack 3-defense starbase. It really isn't all that much when you count everything in.
17 ogrovs (money equivalent to the above) would quickly turn that SB into dust. Starfish would be slower, but would also die a lot slower with Advent's kewltastic shield regeneration.
So, TEC has TNT, Advent has a percussive driller and Vasari are simply left with a rubber eraser against a reinforced concrete wall.