How should I start?

from Sins Forums

So I have set out some posts about how to play, but here is the most important part of any game: the start.

 

I personally don't know what race I like the most, but I played Vasari quite a bit.

 

So when i start, what should I do?  Imagine this is a 2v2 where there really are no roles of feeder and attacker.

 

Personally (with quick start), i get an egg, scuttle cap ship factory, get maybe 4 more scouts to do what they do best, get maybe one or two skirmishers, build a civilian research thang and max out for the terran population, build a warfare research thang and research the assailants, and research fully the first phase missile tile (by now, i sent out my egg to a nearby asteroid to take it).  Then i try to get as many assailants as possible, I get maybe 5, and then i get rushed, or something, or i feel like i need a bigger fleet to take on the enemies.  I get into a pickle.  I build more fleets to take over planets, but the planets are already in the enemies hands.

 

Frankly, after this point i dont know what to do.  I dont have a sense for when to research what. 

 

In the begining i tend to ignore planets with many pirates, and usually end up getting asteroids.  A problem is that when i get the asteroids, the enemy attacks, and my fleet is busy repelling their fleet (which is quite often huge compared to mine), so i cant get the planets with many pirates, but the enemy can.  So annoying, lol.

 

I want to be self sufficient, without asking for feed to repell people.  For example, in the beginging of a game, yellow tec came to attack.  I got feed to repell him, and then to build defences.  I got many assailants and destroyed his capitol.  Then his existence was in my hands.  He came wave after wave, and i destroyed him wave after wave.  I didnt bother to attack, as i went to get blue tec on my other side.  All his fleets were elsewhere, and he didnt really mind me taking his asteroids.  I won by only surviving, and mostly with enemy feed (for about half of the game i had my home planet and an asteroid).  Also, this was a 5v5.

 

Now,  Tactics.

 

I suppose this is after i start, but my last game that i played, i was tec attacking advent, er they were attacking me.  I had a better start in this game, a 2v2, as it was less crowded.  He had scouts, illums, and diciples, and a Mothership.  I had scouts, lf's, lrm's, a few hoshikos, maybe 1 or 2 carriers, and a colonizer cap.  I made my scouts attack his illums, lf's attack his scouts, and lrm's attack his diciples.  I do focus fire kind of thing, where i select all (fore example) scouts and shift click on all the illums in the collapsible tree, so they all attack one at a time.

 

My teammate told me to focus fire on his cap, but i decided not to, was it the right choice?  I started to evenly take out his ships, but we were still on the same ground with amount of fleets (he started with more, and ended with more before i retreated).  In the end i continued with this tactic and got reinforcements.  He went to my home planet, which was defended by a lava planet with pirates, and when he got to my home planet (which i defended with a buttload of mines around my repair bays and pretty much all my buildings, he decided he didnt want to deal with that, so he started to leave.  At that point i focus fired all on his cap and got it down to about 1400 health and no shields. 

Then he went back to the border between our stalemate base planets, which both had repair bays 1 sb and factories.  (i defended my sb with mines).

 

Then he quit and his partner quit and we won.

 

 

ALSO!  on a funny note.

 

I was attacking a stray enemy's asteroid, when his teammate came to defend it.  Prior to that i (as vasari) had a mine laying ship and put them near the asteroid for kicks.  I focus fire with my assailants and lvl 8-ish cap on his lvl 1 kol battleship.  I almost killed it when he started to retreat.  He hit everymine except for two, which did the finishing blow.  It was great.

 

Thanks,

 

Zlotbot :D

strategy
5,369 views 6 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

Random advice for situations you encountered

 

Well, you seem to have a decent understanding of Vasari strategy, you probably just need to expand faster. A great way to do this is to build your egg and a fleet of at least three skirmishers (or you can replace one with an assaliant if you get the research fast enough, but don't wait for it) plus a colonizer frigate. Have your combat frigates go to clear your asteroid (destroy the seige friagate first), then send in your colonizer frigate so you can colonize the asteroid while you frigates finish off the light frigate. Meanwhile send your egg to an asteroid, volcanic or ice planet, or a lightly defended desert of terran planet, have it destroy the siege frigates first, colonize the planet, finish of the remaining militia. If done properly you can have to planets in about the same time that you could get your first asteroid.

 

What you research is highly situational, and depends on your situation and starting position. If you are getting a major rush or have no ice or volcanic worlds nearby, civic research won't do you much good. Likewise, if your enemy is over 5 phase jumps away, military research shouldn't be much of a priority. I will say Vasari like to get two of each lab as quickly as possible, as they can colonize all planets, build long range, carrier, and flak frigates, and get starbases with just those. However, it is hardly a rule and should be adapted as needed.

 

Motherships are very hard capital ships to bring down, and massed assaliants are the only real way to efficiently deal with it. Try to engage it as far out as possible and then retreat, forcing it to lose precious antimatter in the phase jump, which will limit its use of shield restore.

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

are flak frigates really worth it?  i tend not to bother researching and building them.

 

also, what is a good sign as to when to start researching what.  for example, when to get a certain type of ship or when to increase the damage/health of the ship.

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Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

flak frigs are good for when the enemy spams bombers/fighters. i usually include at least one, no more than three in every major fleet, one for a small fleet, but its really situational.

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

I've been playing solo for awhile, and have also been lurking on this forum.  My first question is that I've been able to colonize a numbe of planets quickly but that causes a drag to my economy.  Also does it make sense to only build bombers if also building the anti strike craft vessels?  I've noticed a number of people saying that newbs shouldn't play vassari at first, but the other races don't make much sense to me.

Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Zlotbot, reply 2
are flak frigates really worth it?  i tend not to bother researching and building them.

 

also, what is a good sign as to when to start researching what.  for example, when to get a certain type of ship or when to increase the damage/health of the ship.
End of Zlotbot's quote

Flak are actually one of the most powerful ship types in the game. Their damage multipliers are bad against everything but Verylight and Light armour, though. However, the high base attack of flak makes them ideal for killing LRFs and scouts. The key is making sure that the ships are using all their weapons at the same time, to maximize damage. And currently, massed flak is one of the few ways to go head on against an Illum spammer while still having a chance of victory.

It really depends on the situation. Generally, ship upgrades should be researched after you've maxed your current fleet supply, to maximize the efficiency of your ships. For researching new ships, you want to first scout out what your opponent is making, then research the appropriate counter.

Quoting elonin, reply 4
I've been playing solo for awhile, and have also been lurking on this forum.  My first question is that I've been able to colonize a numbe of planets quickly but that causes a drag to my economy.  Also does it make sense to only build bombers if also building the anti strike craft vessels?  I've noticed a number of people saying that newbs shouldn't play vassari at first, but the other races don't make much sense to me.
End of elonin's quote

When colonizing, you always want to make sure you have the money to immediately buy the infastructure upgrades. Generally, large amounts of volcanic/ice planets will cause an economic drain at first, due to their research costs. The key is to colonize quickly, but also at an efficient pace to avoid losing too much income.

Bombers are a lot more resiliant to flak than fighters are, but massed flak will still kill bombers in time. You want to get LFs if your opponent has flak; LF is their counter.

Vasari is very difficult to play, whereas TEC and Advent are easier to get into. This is mainly because the latter two factions are a lot more straightforward in abilities, while Vasari ships are inefficient for their costs and have more difficult (And bizarre) abilities to utilize.

Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Zlotbot, reply 2
are flak frigates really worth it?  i tend not to bother researching and building them.

 

also, what is a good sign as to when to start researching what.  for example, when to get a certain type of ship or when to increase the damage/health of the ship.
End of Zlotbot's quote

 

They can be if your enemy has a good amount of strikecraft. They are also the toughest frigates in the game, so some people use them as "damage soakers". However, if you have more fighters than your opponent and he doesn't have much of his own flak either, then you can live without them.

 

Quoting elonin, reply 4
I've been playing solo for awhile, and have also been lurking on this forum.  My first question is that I've been able to colonize a numbe of planets quickly but that causes a drag to my economy.  Also does it make sense to only build bombers if also building the anti strike craft vessels?  I've noticed a number of people saying that newbs shouldn't play vassari at first, but the other races don't make much sense to me.
End of elonin's quote

Planet colonization is the best way to expand your economy. Just make sure you research the basic population upgrades immediately so they start giving you positive credit income. While they researching those upgrades and building extractors seems expensive at first, they pay for themselves quite quickly compared to say trade ports, and they allow you to build more labs/factories/repair bays etc.

Personally, I think you should learn to play the race you like the best. I started with Advent because I liked how their ships looked and they had an interesting back story. It was only later I realized that they were considered to be the best faction for "Pro" players. It probably is harder to become a good Vasari player, but if you enjoy playing them the little extra time playing them shouldn't be to much of a pain.