You can almost always determine your role simply by looking at map startup...if you are frontliner or suicide, you should be spamming LFs as fast as possible....you MUST build at least one lab ASAP so you can increase your fleet supply...I'd suggest a military (just to be on the safe side) but as you become more confident, you can lead with 1 civ as TEC for modular architecture instead...
You should be building LFs almost constant...start with researching nothing in the beginning other than that fleet upgrade...focus on just building LFs non stop and colonizing that roid and moon by you....if you are building LFs non stop, you should be able to stop any early Orky rush on one of your planets...
The real trick is anticipating what neutral planets the Vasari player is going to SB...the SB will build faster, and it is essential you have your LFs there before the Vasari player gets there and tries to dominate it...once the SB is built, you may never be able to get that planet back...
If an SB starts building and you know you won't kill it, immediately tech up for carriers and run your LFs through enemy territory...destroy military labs or frigate factories, harass them, force them to SB their other worlds or invest in frigates, anything that draws resources from their newly built SB...if they instead try to SB your planets while your LFs are busy, well, that's what the carriers are for...use those bombers to prevent any SBs on your territory, and when you have enough you can use those bombers to destroy SBs on the enemies own turf...
As the early game goes on, they will try to use either corvettes or fighters to deal with your bombers...in either case, running a few flak or having some fighters on your own may be enough...if they build corvettes, have a mixture of bombers and fighters with the fighters focusing on the corvettes...if they build fighters, you may be able to go all bombers, and have some flak microed to try and shoot down their fighters (this is tricky though as the flak have to avoid the SB)...the only player I've seen micro their fighters around my flak is Doci (other players may do it, but I haven't seen it), so usually you can shoot down some fighters without having the flak too close to the SB (as the fighters fly all over the place)...
I usually build my bombers and keep them at my HW...that way, the Vasari player won't see them just by scouting by frontier worlds...you have to jump a ton in at once, you can't just slowly slip them in because that gives the Vasari player time to react...if they are busy chasing your LFs and don't realize you are amassing bombers, they will prioritize building more SBs over building fighters/corvettes and may not even upgrade the hull on the SB(s) you are prepping to wipe first...
One final note...once you know your Vasari player has minelayers, you should research flak...5 or so scouts and 2-4 flak ships should always be kept on had so you can quickly clear any mines that are laid...that is, of course, assuming you aren't AL....
