I'm going to try all of your suggestions and see how things go. I guess I need to read up more on the different capabilities of the ships TEC has. BTW, the only place where I have a starbase is where the old pirate base choke point is. I'll switch all my carriers over to fighters and also the starbase. I've pretty much have all the tech researched at this point. I'll build two marzas.
What kind of light frigate should I build? Is there more than one type?
Light Frigate is it's self a unique class of ships, a subtype of the category "frigates". The game subdivides non-capitalships into frigates and cruisers but around the forums most players refer to both cruisers & frigates merely as "frigates" for simplicity since there is no real mechanical differences between frigates and cruisers.
That said, the types of frigates each faction has are:
The scout frigate, the light frigate(often abbreviated LF on forums), the long range frigate(often abbreviated LRM on forums), the Flak Frigate, the carrier Cruiser, the heavy Cruiser, 2 support cruisers, and the Heavy Construction Cruiser(which makes starbases.
The Light frigate for the TEC is the Cobalt frigate, for the Advent is the Disciple, and for the Vasari is the Skirmisher.
Light frigates excel primarily at killing carrier frigates, Flak frigates, and support frigates. So the idea is while the fighters clear the air of enemy bombers the Light frigates kill the carriers before the bombers are simply rebuilt. Note Light frigates also generally have tech upgrades that allow them to drain AM fromt heir targets- this is also very useful for this role as carriers cannot build new squads of bombers when their AM is depleted.
One thing I haven't finished researching yet is the light carrier for TEC? Should I build alot of those and load them with fighters also?
Definitely. Carriers are probably by and large the best late game frigates by far. The provide a phenominal amount of firepower per command and that firepower is very flexible(can shift between bombers and fighters to match the situation & strikecraft can attack at a far distance from your fleet).
Carrier frigates are used less often early on in games as they are prohibitively expensive early, but in the super late game they are indepensible, especially being that they can do their damage from accross a gravity well where they needn't fear the fairly common AoE death zones titans have brought to the game.
Also a question about your fleet composition: when you said you tried a carrier fleet loaded with bombers I'd assumed you meant light carriers, but in light of this reply I assume you actually were using capitalships. How many capitalships are you generally building by contrast to the number of frigates in your fleet? One mistake newer players often make is over investing in capitalships. Honestly the majority of a strong fleet's firepower generally comes from frigates rather then capitalships. Not to mention the more capitalships you build the slower they all level up.
In general you usually don't build more then 3 or at most 4 capitalships before you start filling out your fleet supply with frigates. Additional capitalships beyond that don't generally come in unless you need them to counter something or reachl the stage of the game when the scale of battles is so large that leveling up new ones becomes faster.
BTW, that moving starbase thing is scary as is the vasari titan. I didn't put much of a dent in either of them in spite of focussing my firepower on them? Should I be going after the enemy carriers first? Do the vasari carriers look like giant footballs?
First off, the Vasari starbase is indeed terrifying. in fact the vasari Rebel who have jump-capable starbases are currently considered extremely overpowered for that very reason.
The Giant Egg shaped capitalship is the Vasari colonization capitalship, not their carrier. That said, the names of their carrier capitalship is the Skirantra Carrier and the name of their carrier frigate is called the Lasurak Transporter. Best way to see what they look like is to either load up a game as vasari or alternatively while fighting them, find the ships with those names on the empire tree(the drop down menu on the left of the screen for each planet), click on their icon in the tree and see what the unit you targeted looks like.
Unfrotunately though it's nto always quite as simple as "target the carriers first". Your light frigates should definitely try to kill the enemy carrier frigates as soon as possible(but mind you late game light frigates are rather fail, so having them lead the charge may be dangerous if the enemy has other types of frigates escorting the carriers).
The Skirantra is much harder to kill then a frigate(land it's worth noting like all capitalships light frigates aren't your best bet against it). That said, it's unlikely that the enemy will get a critical mass of bombers that threatens your fleet with capitalships alone. If you can take out the carrier frigates you may well eb able to field enough fighters to keep the bombers fielded bye enemy capitalships under control.
That said if you do Want to kill the Skirantra, using your own bombers, LRM frigates(Javelis missile frigates), or Heavy Cruisers(the kodiak for TEC) sre you best bet for killing capitalships quickly. While not necessarily always your top priority, Skirantras are pretty juicy targets as they have a very powerful AoE healing ability which provides tremendous sustainability to the Vasari Fleet.
Money is pretty tight for me right now. Should I do a static defense w/two starbases + all my point defenses (I'll switch everything over to fighter hangers from my gauss run with rocket launchers for my tactical slots at the chokepoint). Thanks for all your help!
Well it's certainly ideal to have a starbase on key defensive locations. And you'll certainly want 2 repair bays anywhere that might get attacked. Hangers are more of something you build to field fighters to safeguard against enemies using bombers or anti-module frigates to level your defenses from outside your starbase's range. Keep in mind that by the late game turrets are mostly useless(their upgrade utility techs can give them some usefulness in small numbers, but don't mass them).
All that said, my answer for the question of "how much should I invest in defenses" is chiefly this: in the late game as much as can be spared without hurting your fleet too much. When it comes down to it, late game defenses are primarily meant to buy time for your fleet to arrive and to support said defensive fleet, not to win the battle on their own. The key to winning most battles is having a fleet as strong as the opponents- supporting starbases and static defenses may just be the boost that turns an otherwise equal battle in your favor, but if your enemy's fleet is superior it's going to be an uphill battle. The the very least if you have unused fleet supply you should priotize replacing lost ships over building static defenses unless those static defenses are essential to your immediate survival. Anyway, I realize some of this may sound a bit abstract, but I'm not really so sure how to explain it in a more effective manner.
Well I may be starting to ramble a bit- I've never really grasped the trick to condensing my posts down to a minimal length hitting only on key points. That said, glad to help and I hope some of this information is useful.
