Vasari Carrier-Based Strategy

from Sins Forums

After a recent game where I decided to get carriers as Vasari, I started to work on the concept for a carrier-based strategy to counter the usual lrf/flak spam we see online.  After a bit of experimentation, I think I've got a good premise, but I haven't tested it against enough players to say whether it's solid or not.  So, I'm going to post my ideas here and see what opinions I get from others.

 

First and foremost, this isn't a carrier massing strategy.  You should still have plenty of assailants and flaks of your own.  Secondly, this is by no means a cookie cutter.  You scout and only use this strategy if you think it's appropriate.  Thirdly, this is a relatively micromanagement heavy strategy.  In fact, I'm beginning to think you need to outmicro your enemy to win with it. 

The core idea of the strategy is to avoid a battle of attritian.  We know that in a cost-for-cost battle flaks will murder fighters and easily protect the lrf under their care.  However, fighters can run circles around those flaks with their vastly superior mobility, so any fighter/flak crossfire will happen because you allowed it to.  If we can provoke a situation where the flaks cannot protect all their lrf, we can whittle away those more fragile units while avoiding the main body of his flak force.  I use a combination of flanking and kiting to achieve this, carefully maneuvering small groups of untis to try to draw out the enemy fleet, all the while dancing just out of flak range with my fighters.  I combine this with small groups of carriers trying to ambush reinforcements (and, if applicable, trade vessels) in order to force my opponent to split up his fleet or expend a lot of money in static defense.  In other words, I'm talking about a hit and run strategy designed to bleed the enemy's fleet over a long period of time, rather than committing to a single decisive battle (which, as we know, doesn't exactly favour fighters currently).

Capital ships of interest are the Jerrasul Evacuator (it's probably your first cap anyways), the Vulkoras Desolator, and the Skirantra Carrier.  The Skirantra is an obvious choice; repair cloud and microphasing aura are life-savers for Vasari strike craft.  Every fighter that can be repaired rather than allowed to die reduces the sting of the build rate penalty.  The Vulkoras probably comes as a surprise.  Basically, siege frigates suck and it's better to simply pay the exorbitant price for a capital ship that can do the job better and actually defend itself.  The idea is to distract the main fleet with a roaming carrier force, then move in on another planet with a Vulkoras and a couple of carriers in support.

In combat, the goal is to provoke a protracted battle and to slowly pick off units while avoiding taking casualties.  This is combined with your roaming Vulkoras (and possible small groups of siege frigs if the map is big enough to merit it) will cause your enemy to start bleeding money.  While your carriers might not be able to win the first fight (if they can, that's great, but I'm not going to count on it), but if you can keep up the pressure and the enemy on the defensive then your advantage will only grow.

The one thing I've found about the strategy is that getting the antimatter regeneration upgrade is absolutely critical, otherwise the Vulkoras can't deploy its bombardment platforms often enough and carriers get crippled by phase jumps.  Pleasantly, I've also found skirmishers with reintigration to be very useful in my smaller raiding party, since they can clean up unescourted flaks and are virtually impossible to kill if there's only a few lrf present.

 

So, give your opinion.  Good or bad, I want to hear what you have to say.

strategy
3,998 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

The problem I see here is that we don't always get to dictate the terms of a battle.  If someone else forces a battle at a place you MUST defend or risk losing the game, you will not have the luxury to whittle at vulnerable ships.  You will have to destroy their main damage dealers or lose the game.

That said, carriers still have a place in the game, especially for people with good micro.  Against the right person, you might get a lot of mileage out of these tactics.

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

The problem I see here is that we don't always get to dictate the terms of a battle.  If someone else forces a battle at a place you MUST defend or risk losing the game, you will not have the luxury to whittle at vulnerable ships.  You will have to destroy their main damage dealers or lose the game.
End of quote

That's one of the big reasons I bring out the Vulkoras.  The only capital ship (barring level 6 abilities) which can match it for bombarding planets is the Marza.  Combined with that cheap level 1 tech that discounts planet fortification upgrades, I can pretty much guarantee I'll be on the winning side of any contest to see who can bomb each other's planets the fastest.  For taking out structures, I can just retool some of my carriers to field bombers that that can clean up most structures quite easily.  At least in theory, mutually assured destruction should favour Vasari because this would leave neutrals as the dominant source of income.

However, surprisingly it hasn't come to that yet.  Most of the time I can keep enough pressure on them between my carriers and my Vulkoras that they can't (or won't) actually get at my empire.

Ashes of the Singularity II
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

This is almost the exact strategy Rubeeisdabomb uses, except he just lvls his egg to 6 and sucks all your planets up.

He'll build loads of carriers and send them to roam around your planets in groups of 15-20, usually with about 70% bombers. Send them deep into your territory taking out buildings along the way, and leading your fleet away from the fringes where his egg is scooping up your planets

You can try and chase 'em but he always manages to get away, with relatively low casualties, even when PJIs are used.

Generally he takes advantage of the fact that no one builds LFs in large numbers, and it works quite well.

 

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

40 lf will take care of a running carrier fleet

Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top

40 lf will take care of a running carrier fleet
End of quote

As I said, this isn't a carrier massing strategy; I still have plenty of assailants of my own so it's not just a matter of the enemy swapping to another unit type.  Strangely enough, I've yet to see someone actually follow the LF route against me.  I've seen people who just spam more flaks and people who bring out carriers of their own (prevents me from bringing out the bombers), and those who try bringing out their anti-sc capital.