Best capital ship

TEC - Kol #1, Sova #2, Dunov #9...lol

Advent - To be honest, all of them besides the revelations battlecruiser are #1 on my list, they all rock in their own way(And even more when together)

Vasari - Antorak,Evacuator and Devastator are all #1, haven't tried the other 2.

There is no "best" capital ship in this game. they are designed and balanced around certain uses. what ever ship is best for YOU depends on what plan/strategy you are going with compared to the map and the plan/strategy of your opponent.

with that said some combinations tend to get more attention than others.

Ummm... I can tell you the worst is the KOL!

Aye, the Kol isn't anything that impressive.

The Level 6 ability can be pretty useful, but it's just not as useful as others. The area-effect damage can wreak hell if you drag the Kol into the middle of enemies so that every gun battery can open fire, but those guns don't do all that much damage, so you won't see very large benefits. If you fire the main cannon into a group of enemies, however, you'll do some serious damage.

The flak ability is a joke, as it can't even destroy a fighter. The Gauss ability also needs to be reevaluated - it consumes a MASSIVE amount of energy and is WAY too easily mitigated by shields and armor. It says it does 800 damage at level 3 - but more realistically you'll be lucky to get over 300 damage out of it. Pathetic.

I think Akkan is by far the most useful TEC ship. Aside from the colonize feature it offers pretty good fire power and its targeting buff that augments fleets around it.

A kol teaming up with an akkan with the fully maxed targetting buff is an insane combo but kol by itself is just decent.

Playing as the advent, the mothership isn;t nearly as powerful as an Akkan firpowerwise, the debuff it has is pretty decent and my make up some slack but requires a larger fleet to make up the difference.

I have only goofed around with the Vasari for just a wee bit and didn;t really try out too many of their caps.

Just as leafs43 stated. The TEC Akkan is amazing, not only does it save on unit cap in the beginning of the game because you don't need a colony ship, but Armistice is good ablity. So is the Target Up-link (really good if you fleet it up with missle ships.)

Another really good one is the Vasari Anorak Marauder, even though by the looks of it it isn't that good. It has a really really good ability, Phase out hull. It is amazing late game.

For the Advent I like the Radiance, the thing is a damn tank with the Animosity ability.

question does the Radiance ability 'Animosity' work when you play against other players. Because it is suppose to make ships near it attack itself. But if you select your ships again and click on the target will they continue to fire at the Radiance or go back to the target you want them to attack?

Hard to say there is a "best" capital ship since they are really designed to work together both with other caps and your main fleet. Makes the game that much more fun to.

I will say that for TEC I like the Dunov quite a bit more than the Akkan as a support vessel though. The shield recharge, antimatter+sheild burn emp, and antimatter cost reduction to friendlies are insanely useful. The shield recharge probably being the best. The Akkans ion bolt can be useful for taking out a fleeing cap ship but the targeting ability hasnt been too useful to me. Maybe if I can micro armistice more then it might show its true worth there. Marzas area of affect attacks can also pay dividends on spammed ships and Kols make a great meat shield. Sova carriers arent worth a whole lot though since going for strikecraft isnt really a TEC thing. My exp with the other races is limited.

I think the Revelation BC level 6 ability has to be one of the coolest in the game. It takes down enemy planets very quickly and with great style (screaming skulls that give my wife the heebie-jeebies). The Mezmerize ability on the ship can also be extremely useful, although it can also cause trouble if not carefully monitored.

oh gods another "WUTS BEST CAP SO I NO WUT 2 BUILD TO BEAT EZEE AI'S?"

Heck, that gives ME the heebie jeebies!

The Revelation is my favorite ship for a number of reasons, including that ability to destroy a planet with a psionic rage virus, and the ability to see anywhere in the galaxy, which makes up for my poor scouting skillz.

TEC: #1 Kol, #2 Marza, #3 Sova, #4 Akkan, #5 Dunnov

Yes it will, if the ships are in the area and are able to attack they will stop what they are doing and attack the ship for a short time. So it could be a bad thing if you don't plan it right.

Vasari: #1 Kortul Devastator, #2 Skirantra Carrier, #3 Vulkoras Desolator, #4 Antorak Marauder, #5 Jarrasul Evacuator.

Kortul Devastator is probably the strongest/best 1 vs 1 Cap ship there is.

I'd like the Akkan more if the Ion Bolt wasn't so worthless.

At the highest level, it's what, a 7 second freeze? That's pathetic. I've never seen a situation where that makes-or-breaks a fight.

I forgot the name of it, but there's another Cap Ship ability that disables all your abilities for like 30 seconds. That's ridiculously powerful compared to the crappy Ion Bolt.

I was hoping Ion Bolt was a good solution to fleeing ships, until I used it, and couldn't even get their shields halfway down before they were active again, and I had a huge cooldown to wait for.

The cooldown on ion bolt is short and the akkan can attack while using it. It's certainly useful, especially for stopping channels.

Also lol@skirantra carrier ranked above antorak marauder.

I hope people don't take 90% of what's in this thread to heart. :/

There isn't a best cap for each race. All 3 races have 3 that are good, depending on your playstyle, map size, situation, and 2 that pretty much always suck.

I don't know if you noticed but I think a handful of Scout frigates will outdamage an Akkan.

Ion Bolt is pathetic. It's only BARELY useable at level 3 with 7 seconds. 3 seconds at level 1?

I'll never understand why the Akkan's ion bolt was nerfed. It was borderline useless in the first place (only good for knocking ships out of phase jump), and now they upped the recharge to the point where you might not even be able to do that consecutively. Colonize is a novelty skill, and the uplink ability is half-useless as there's no accuracy in the game. Sometimes I just wonder what they were thinking.

Also... Dunov, bad? Shield recharge? Cheaper abilities? Antimatter burn + AoE damage? Relatively speaking, TEC cap ship abilities generally suck, so the best thing you can do is burn the enemy's antimatter to make sure their ships are just as bad. Also, I've -never- had two medium-level Dunovs in a fleet and ever managed to lose a capital ship in their presence. It's not an early-game cap ship, but it's pretty good later on.

Colonize is far from a novelty. With your first free Cap you can get an Akkan and trounce on planets almost immediately. It isn;t unusal for someone with an Akkan or similar ship to have 2-3 planets capped within 5 minutes of a game beginning. That is a huge advantage over building settler ships.


Also an akkan also helps when you are conquering because you can set up forward bases almost immediately after destroying someones planet.

Depending on how many fronts there are you usually want to have 1 colonize cap ship per front unless it is a small map.

I just beat a random huge map with pirates as TEC using only capital ships. I raised fleet cap up just enough to get my 16 capital ships and didn't make any other ships. I lost one capital ship the whole game and that was just from being dumb. I used an equal amount of Dunov, Marza and Sova. Having two Dunovs in one fleet nearly guarantees it's invulnerability. Marzas for speedy planet bombing and Sovas for enemy frigates and their turret ability. I havn't played as any other race yet.

For the TEC -

1) Akkan - Ion Bolt is superb, Colonise is very handy and the Target Uplink ability makes LRMs and Kols, as well as Bombers in range far more deadly, and the ship isn't too shabby at fighting.

2) Kol - for simple firepower, extremely handy, and it has pretty respectable hitpoints, too. The Flak ability is completely pish, mind, but the Gauss Cannon, when used en-masse with another couple of Kols, can be used to tear apart enemy cap ships (Carriers a speciality)

3) Sova - decent weapons, and at a high level, the Heavy Fighters and Heavy Manufacturing abilities are invaluable, Embargo is handy and the Missile Platforms are vaguely useful, too.

4) Dunov - the shield restore ability is handy, although it needs some serious micro to work properly, the computer unnervingly targets Cobalts with it when your Kols are about to blow up and the EMP attack is fairly alright (nothing special, though, and an Akkan's Ion Bolt also stops enemies from using their abilities). Bit weak, though.

5) Dreadnought (forget the name, hardly ever use it) - Extremely dubious. Not as powerful as a Kol for direct firepower, and the anti-planet ability is too weak to really do much of use. Combine that with the lack of any fighter cover until level 5, and it looks a bit rubbish in general.

Targeting Uplink is not about accuracy. It gives all nearby ships 20% longer range and 15% chance to hit (applies to Flak and fighters). Flak chance to hit bombers goes to 100% (from 85%) and 90% to hit interceptors. LRMs range goes up to 10200 without researching ERM. Basically TEC gets the first shot in face to face engagements with TU. Best part is that this cost no antimatter and helps out the entire fleet.

I agree about the Dunov, but the Sova is pretty impressive, especially when you pair up Heavy fighters (another antimatter freebie) with Targeting Uplink.

The Kols' regular weapons are a match for any other similar Cap ship in the game.A lvl 3 800hp Gauss gun with a cool down rate of 6 and Vasari proof Adaptive shielding aren't impressive to you?

Yeah but you can trounce on planets with a colony ship also. Engage enemy ships and pull them off to one side of the gravity well (or just on one side of the phase lane) then move in a colony ship from the other side of the lane and colonize the planet right away, then pull it out. Even if the colony ship gets shot up, you only really need to do this twice, after the first two colonies a few seconds of planet capture won't make any difference. Also, wherever you go, you always have a colony ship one phase jump behind anyways, ready to phase in and colonize.

And what do you lose? You get a cap ship with average dps, bad (no?) combat abilities and that's about it. I can never justify building an Akkan cap ship.

Not particularly convenient, though, seeing as a colony ship then has to recharge its antimatter before it can colonise the planet and has no way to defend itself from harm - if and you don't really want to be faffing about and losing them to enemy fire, because that's 450 credits a go - lose, say, five in that way (quite possible if you're going for a quick capture), and you're not that far off the cost of simply building an Akkan, which comes with fighter / bomber support, a colonise ability that can also net you mines, Ion Bolt, a Targetting Uplink and that occassionally useful power of Armastice.

Akkans are great. Their DPS is pretty high and they have quite a few slots for strikecraft. What really makes them is their Ion Bolt power, which is absolutely superb for taking out enemy cap ships on the run - never underestimate 5 seconds in which the enemy cannot move, shoot, or fix itself up. That's a couple of volleys at least, and if your enemy is already weak, that's easily enough to polish them off with a Kol's beams and then a Gauss shot, as well as any frigates you have who can chip in.

That they also come with the Targetting Uplink, which gives your LRMS assured first-strike ability at high levels, and makes flak frigates into strikecraft killing machines at longer ranges makes them absolutely invaluable.

Try it in a game tonight - an Akkan and two Kols together. By the time these ships are level 3 (not like it's much of an effort to get them there), you'll have 4 fighter or bomber wings, a couple of points in Ion Bolt and a couple in Gauss Cannon if you've any sense, and with a few frigates around, enemy cap ships are going to be in serious trouble, as they're unable to move, and get generally plastered by your own caps.

TEC: I normally start with a Kol or Dunov. I find that paring these two capital ships together works wonders because the Kol is so tough and the Dunov is pretty quick. A Kol can sit there and soak up damage while a Dunov recharges its shields or runs around trying to avoid enemy fire. I will also use the Sova from time to time mainly for the embargo ability, but that's normally after I have at least 1 Kol and 1 Dunov...normally. A pair of Sova's later in the game excel at harassing enemy assets. Once in a blue moon I'll use an Akkan but normally I don't since a Kodiak and Cielo easily replace it. I never use a Marza because I think it's worthless and can't find an application for it.

Advent: I actually find all of their capital ships to be equally useful. I tend to start off with a Progenitor most of the time since it can spread damage to clumps of enemy ships, heal, and colonize. It also does great damage when you position it properly. Sometimes I don't start with one though. I do really like the Radiance (it's a tank just like the Kol), Rapture (vengeance is great and I love this ship's look), and Halcyon (nice long-range weapons and placement of them). A pair of Halcyon's later in the game excel at harassing enemy assets or preventing escapes. The Revelation is normally something I build after I've got 2 or 3 established capital ships since it excels at support. Overall though, choosing an Advent capital ship heavily depends on what's going on at the moment. I consider these to be the most polished capital ships in the game.

Vasari: I actually think all of their capital ships are rather worthless. I find it more effective to run around with Sentinels, Transporters, and Enforcers. Whenever I play Vasari I always start with a Devastator and build a bunch of them. I will rarely build a Carrier, Evacuator (this is the ugliest ship in the entire game), or Desolator. I never build a Marauder because I find that to be beyond useless. I normally don't play Vasari because I find their capital ships to be so poor and downright ugly (except the Desolator, which looks very nice). It seems that using smaller ships is definitely preferable to me.


Of course, all of the above is just my opinion and the way that I play. This is subject to change if I know something about the map or layout of enemy positions in advance. If I'm unfamiliar with the map or if it's randomly generated I normally always build as indicated above.