I was once like you Not any longer

I think Vasari is built for being a bit more agressive so you dont always have to produce your own resources when you can raid them from others. (evil and i love it)
So do not underestimate the power of the empire tier 3 savage tech. They do take a bit of resources to upgrade, but you gain resources by destroying things with cap ship around. It's a handsome bonus. If there are a lot of bounty wars going on, Vasari also have a tech to increase bounty yield. The warfare tier 1 assailant and overall toughness of Vasari ships should give you a bit of a military advantage early on.

When playing the AI with diplomacy, they give you offensive missions. Doing them selectivly is especially profitable for vasari due to the above upgrades too.

I had to bump this topic cos playing vasari is tricky sometimes.

Anyone know how to get vasari economies running to the most effecient way possible.. e.g map storm front: home: planet is green, 1 ice planet, 1 desert planet and 2 asteroids with resources. 

 

 

Economy for Vas is always a bit of a gamble. If the map is neutral heavy, then you can really be set. If not, you really have to be aggressive in your colonization.

i go for the population boom research and try colonize planets as soon as possible.... find it difficult to defend neutrals but i try anyway. i also have to build 1 culture station at my homeworld. 

The advise about vassari colonizing quickly seems at odds with the rule of thumb that you shouldn't expand too quickly.  Sounds like I am doing something wrong.

If we're talking about pure economics, then yes you want to expand as fast as you can.  If you're in a position where you'll have to fight early, then you'll have to temper yourself.  If you're trying to compete with an opponent who is spamming early trade ports and you can't rush him, then your only real option as Vasari is rapid expansion.

Are you on random small maps?  Because those have lots and lots of room, which inherently places emphasis more on colonization and less on fleeting up early...if you play on a map where you're only 4 or so jumps from another HW, then rapid colonization doesn't always work...

The space egg actually ain't a bad lead even for frontliners because the nanites are a pretty good counter against capital ships and SB rushes...also, the extra constructor from its colonization can be invaluable in certain circumstances if you get to a choke point right before the enemy...

But otherwise, I'd agree that sovas or halcyons are going to be better than the colony cap...even as Vasari, skirantra is probably best 1st pick for frontliners and certainly the best 2nd pick if you lead with a space egg...

If you're in suicide, some would argue that a colony cap is better because you can use it to find a new HW near the map's center, but that is debatable and honestly I think it matters on how the teams are stacked...and expert player in suicide probably can keep two mediocre players busy long enough to justify bunkering down instead of sending the colony cap off to relocate the HW...