1. I noticed there were no pirate attacks. I assume you turned them off. Is that just a personal preference or does it help with the overall gameplay?
A little of both. Most multiplayer gamers play without pirates.
2. Was there any reasoning behind your settlement pattern? Did you just branch out until you found the enemies main base then focus on expanding towards it?
I was quite focused on expanding directly towards the enemy. That doesn't mean I wouldn't make an effort to take other planets (notice how I picked up that terran later on with frigates alone)
3. Obviously the use of the ability of the navigators to capture asteriod fields was huge, what do you do when you use TEC or advent that dont have that ability? Does it slow your expansion rate?
Absolutely; this is one of Vasari's core advantages. On the other hand, Vasari are widely considered the weakest faction in the early game if not for this advantage, so it kinda evens out. I only won the early fights because the AI allowed me to complete repair bays on the desert and a starbase on his homeworld.
What you need to do as Advent or TEC is to send units (including light frigates) to these important gravity wells to chase off Vasari scouts. If you do that early enough you can compete for most of these wells. The two uncolonizable well near the TEC should have been a challenge for me to hold on to, but they weren't because the AI was too easily distracted.
4. It seems most of the initial pirate spawns were light ( i.e. only 2-3 light frigates in most). Is the standard you used for light spawns with asteriods to take it with a navigator then build a defense platform to kill the spawn then mine and leave it be?
Yup, that's exactly how you take asteroids. Also works on lightly guarded planets (though I usually bring along a few frigates for those). The catch is your migrator needs enough antimatter to capture the planet. Since you lose 100 antimatter after each jump, this can mean you spend a long time waiting for that antimatter to come back, so it doesn't work quite so well for more distant asteroids, which is why I sent a couple frigates along to assist.
5. Do you normally use only your inital capital ship to clear the first planets? Do you ever wait for some support frigates etc? Do you normally use the same strategy as with the asteriod spawns by immediately colonizing and building defense platforms while you engage the rest of the pirates?
Normally, you jump in and get to work so you can move on to the next planet sooner. Imagine if I'd been a minute slower with my capital ship; the AI would have owned that desert and I'd have had to fight for it. Because I got there so fast, I was able to colonize it before he could.
Sending a couple frigates to assist isn't a bad thing, but you don't want to wait for them. Very few types of militia are capable of seriously threatening a capital ship, and usually those are only on desert and terran planets. Normally you avoid these in the first 10 minutes of the game, since it just takes too much time and you're better off colonizing other things. You can always come back to heavily defended planets later. If anything, it's a great way to bring your second capital ship up to speed in terms of levels.
