Might want to mention specific ways to counter Vasari SB rushing with minelayer, Wail, and Marza's missile barrage...new players tend to struggle with countering those things...

Very nice new guide! Congratulations! And thanks for it.

Needs a hyperlink: "GoaFan's guide: 'Getting started with Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion' ."

"No spamming, flaming, or capslock abuse." What are we supposed to do in the lobby in this case?

"In most cases, there'll be 2 heavy cruisers, so 1 + 2 = 3 means you have to make 3 cannons really close to each other." I think you only need to get 2 cannons up, no? You need to get them up before the HC's show up, though, i.e., put the cannons on opposite side of well from the fleeing colony ship.

"Concratulations! If you can effectivly use technique 4, you're the second best player in sins because I am currently the only one that uses it." >> BARF!

"In conclusion: if you can use techniques 3 to 5 effectivly, you're a great player, one of the best. So go practise them so I can finally have some competition." >> I LOVE YOU TOO.

"If he makes a starbase, you can refer to the section 'How to deal with starbases' which I wrote for just that occasion." >> YOU MAKE ME SMILE. ARE YOU STILL SINGLE AND AVAILABLE ON THE MARRIAGE MARKET?

"If you make light frigates, keep in mind that you need about 60 light frigates to kill an unupgraded vasari starbase without repair bays." Differentiate Advent (50 to 60?) from TEC (40 to 45?).

"gainst Vasari starbases, I do not recommend ogrovs, because the Vasari starbase will slaughter them faster than they can slaughter the starbase". 35 ogrovs still does the job.....

" If you're uncertain wether or not the enemy has red button, you always have to assume the worst." Look at XP value and figure out if he has upgrade? This works well for level 1 TEC, i.e., the XP value is obvious. It's a bit more complicated once it's upgraded.

"The TEC loyalist titan has group shield, which protects against red button (this might have been patched out)." WHAATT??? I actually learned something reading your guide. I feel like such a nooob loooser now....  Seriously, is this patched or still active?

Who is that talking with the sexy British voice on the RedButton video? It ain't grimm, he sounds like a German ogre on TeamSpeak. We really need some more sexy videos like this, all about the game. You should feature my games, of course, for examples of best techniques.  And who is Paravox in 5s games? Never seen him?

The "Ships Counters" graphics are old, i.e., no corvettes, and numbers are no longer fully correct.

Spelling error: it's "PhatKid", not "FatKid".

Bombs away!!!!

Group shield applies damage reduction, which will reduce the impact of Last Resort on protected ships (I think it is hyperbolic reduction, so incoming damage is divided by 1.18/1.33/1.54/1.82, which is absolute reduction -15%/-25%/-35%/-45%), but it won't prevent the SB from using the ability.

This is a pretty good guide. Important things the guide doesn't say though (probably because Grimm forgot to add them to the guide, not because he doesn't know/use them in his play):

• Targeting the constructor frigates when attacking an enemy well and then exploiting the huge rebuild time penalty while your fleet is in the system (10x more time). As a continuation to that, if you must leave the enemy well with the bulk of your force before their planet is dead, leave a ship or two behind to give them the runaround, like you would with a colonizer to the militia when you don't have enough AM yet to colonize. There's a recording of Doci v. Grimm (https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/451781/page/1/) where they both do that to each other repeatedly (starting around 20 to 30 minutes in). This is a tactic that one can use/practice vs. AI as well, although the AI hardly ever targets constructors so the AI isn't of much use in learning how to defend against this.
• One of the few defenses that's actually worth spending credits on: upgrade emergency facilities (hp upgrade) on the planets that the enemy might bomb (front line). You must do this before he enters the well. Upgrade takes 45s time to complete and only after that planet hp starts growing. 45s is plenty for the enemy cap to reach the planet from the edge of the well. Certainly do not bother if the planet is already being bombed and you have no hope of lifting the bombardment; that's wasted credits because planet hp does not grow at all under bombardment, so increasing the max hp is pointless then. More about this https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/455063/page/1/#3473683
• Repair platforms are actually pretty effective at helping capital ships early on (vs. up to 30 enemy LFs or so). It's important to learn to estimate how much health you need to run back for repairs. This depends on a number of things so it takes practice to learn. The good news is that it's one of the few things you can practice vs. the AI: attack his outer planets aggressively with your cap then ran back for repairs; try to push your luck to see where the breaking point is. (I'm going to make a more technical/concrete post about this.)
• The first front-line engagement is more advantageous if it happens in (poorly developed) enemy territory than if it happens in your (similarly poorly developed) territory) This is because your capital ship can glass a planet and also shoot at the enemy ships or structures, all the same time, so you [literally] get the most bang for your buck that way. (Caps with more firepower to the sides [than to the front] have a slight advantage in this early-strike role.) But if the enemy sprouted 2+ repair platforms, then it's probably not to your advantage to fight there, unless you outfleet him significantly. Assuming a symmetrical map (which ain't happening in 5s that much), the best response if your roid/moon is certainly going to die is to go with your cap after one his, if it's not too far.
• While estimating the chances of your LF fleet vs. an enemy LF fleet is a relatively simply a matter of comparing numbers (and using a 5:4 conversion of Disciples:Cobalts), when dealing with the Vasari SB (a cornerstone of Vasari early expansion) you need to memorize a few "mileposts", otherwise you'll be ineffective/lose or delay attacking too long, both of which are bad (the latter because SB upgrades generally cost less than the extra fleet needed to counter them.) Shameless plug: I've assembled a quite few mileposts in my "Orky guide" (https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/454588/page/1/), still work in progress. You certainly don't need to remember all of those; the earlier ones are generally more consequential. If you can't deal with an Orky right way, strike at Vasari's econ structures while preserving [most of] your fleet. The Vasari repair platform is very weak in combat (it repairs a fair bit of hp per AM usage, but that takes a long time) so the Vasari is more vulnerable to econ raiding. That could also force the Vasari to spend on more Orkies than it can afford. As a rule of thumb, the Vasari player can afford two Orkies that can handle the opponent's fleet, if he ain't building much fleet himself. So if you can force a 3rd Orky to be built, one of the three is likely not going to be beefy/upgraded enough. [Feed in 5s can of course change this.]