Vasari desolator is - late game, this is the single best cap to cap ship because of its phase missles. Since they COMPLETELY negate shields and shield mitigation, you can litterally destroy any ship but the kol befor it's shields are down, and MUCH more real damage is inflicted by negation of mitigation. Ignoring the fact that because it's a siege ship, it has the highest DPS of your cap varaties - ignoring abilities.

Vasari marauder is the best harrasment cap in the game, can kite anything with it's huge speed, and supporting strike forces can make them so fast TEC flak can't even hit them, and though it has horrible stats at low level, improves the most of any cap in the game from level to level, and gets a HUGE damage boost from upgrading beams [35% damage up to its main damage inflictor]

The Space Whale can defeat any cap one on one with it's nanite attack - which at lvl 3 will take out any non cap in one hit, [given time to do it's full DOT] and with its colonization and large anti matter reserve generally making it the best choice on a large map, and its VERY useful skill making it a viable choice on small 1v1, 2v2 maps, especially being able to deal 1500damage to any planet in 30 seconds, i.e. best planet killer in game.

Nothing too special about the carrier other than it's huge damage potential with bombers, microphasing aura [which makes bombers get hit less often, and attack more often] and repair ability that is perfectly suited to supporting its strike force, UNLIKE the advent mothership, which is only good as a support. [Strike forces doonae has shields]

The devastor is excellent at destroying fleets, but its skills aren't suited to 1v1 cap fights, since it's lvl 6 AOE attack doesn't deal enough damage to a cap to make it useful, but can destroy an entire fleet of LRM blobs, though its antimatter destroying and ability disabling passive ability seems good, it doesn't make enough of a difference to prevent enemy caps from raping it. However, the more of them there are, the better they get, unlike most caps which don't have a force multiplier effect [great example of force multiplier is dunov's supporting a kol, individually they're all pretty easy to destroy, together they can take out nearly anything]


And while a lot of this advice is from people who have obviously not been playing long enough, you get the gist of the other races.

Except for my comment on the TEC carrier and siege cap - the carrier initially seems sucky as TEC strike forces are shit next to Advent and Vas, but it has a frankly rediculously OP ability that basically doubles it's bombers health.
Not as gamebreakingly OP as Malice, but still enough so it can generally defeat any other cap.

Finally, the marza dreadnought has the largest DPS of the TEC caps, and it's the only real anti-fleet cap in the TEC's aresenal, who will generally wipe out your caps in a real engagement, but have trouble defeating an actual fleet of some 2 or 3 hundred odd ships [unlike a single devastor, which could easily destroy every single one of them if it was an LRM blob, because of it's LVL6's AOE effect that makes ship explosion deal damage to surrounding ships - you can easily chain the entire blob into a rolling wave of *tear* as the TEC/Advent player crys at the massive waste of resources[vas LRMs will generally survive this because of their high health]

Can only comment on Advent:

Radiance
Quite ok overall, but in the end it is a "simple" ship. It can kill enemies, and more importantly it tanks out the damage of the enemies.
Be careful of anything disabling/ignoring shields though, for a Battleship the Radiance is extremely fragile.
Animosity + Energy Absorptive Armor for the win however, and then dump the gains into more Detonate Antimatter.

Despite being the main fighting ship, I use the Radiance as support, keeping the fire off my main force, and casting Vengeance on it before taunting. (then the enemy gets a lot of damage back - now put Malice onto the enemies and you see an entire enemy armor slaughter itself in seconds, it has a certain... Imperatorial feel to it )


Revelation
Meh.
That's the Revelation in one word. Meh. Yes, it has great powers, it's Clairvoyance is a lot more useful than what it appears to be, allowing you to use your forces and your Deliverance Engines with pinpoint accuracy, however the enemy can see what you're tracking so be careul.
Reverie is interesting as is Guidance, but both pale besides the supportive powers of the Progenitor or the Rapture.
Lastly Provoke Hysteria is great, but by the time you can get that you are normally well-stocked for planet attacks.

All around still a good ship, but just can't keep up with the other 4. I usually build one midgame for Clairvoyance scouting, and that's pretty much it.


Halcyon
Come to papa!
This is the punch in my armies. Maxxed-bomber Halcyons with their Aura on the supportive ships and firing Anima Tempest skills right after I took out the flak vessels are just evil.

More of the same, the Halcyon may be very passive in nature (with 2 passive abilities), but it's support aura is insanely powerful and it is just purely dangerous. It might not be the Vasari's high-power strikecrafts but the raw mass of what you're sending against the enemy (with Anima Tempest) is scary.
And Push can be very useful. Used manually at the correct moment it can completely block the Vasari's superior strikecraft (people rate it low because they only got 1 Halcyon - get multiple and it's insane!), and by the time they recover a full-Fighter Halcyon completely cleared the skies.


Progenitor
Normally my first ship, it's abilities are well above the others, at least at the start.
Frankly, the Progenitor should be your first or second capship. Malice is godlike. It's colonization is the difference between fast expansion and Game Over. And Resurrection is quite nice overall, later on.
Plus it has good direct power and Shield Recharge is (no joke) AE Invulnerability.


Rapture
The primary supporter of the Advent, it has great supportive powers but can do little without an army around it.
Overall this should be #3 or so, it's good once you get your army going.



Progenitor -> Halcyon -> Rapture -> more Halcyons -> Radiance -> Revelation -> more mixed.

All I got to say is:

I would have to say that the Radiance is by far the best cap ship, for one outstanding reason: it can tank!!

<--- played a warrior in WoW

^^

It may not be a godlike feature vs humans, but vs any AI the auto-taunt ability pretty much makes it impossible to lose, unless you're hugely outnumbered and outgunned. Just make sure you have some support cruisers and a mothership or two to heal and recharge shields.

Progenitor

2nd cap is usually a Halcyon





I like the carrier because of its repair cloud and the microphasing aura. Also, Vasari fighters > all, which is another good reason to have one. I think the Devastator is the blandest of all ships, I mean its just there, a big hulking ship that kills things. Besides I think the Kol is better.

jBrereton has summed up my views nicely already, but I will toss in my experience as well:

An Akkan expands much faster than a Kol (or anything else) + colony frig, since you dont have to deal with the colonizer's annoyingly low anti-matter or insta-aggro. Considering it isnt a main battleship, Akkans are surprisingly effective in combat. They deal a superb amount of damage and are quite resilient at high levels, since they gain hull and shield points as they level up much faster than any other TEC capship. Ion Bolt is awesome, I cant believe some people in this thread are dissing it. Competent opponents will micro their capital ships away once they notice them getting low, but timely Ion Bolts immobilize it and seal the deal. If the Akkan has good position, it is literally impossible to get away. Has anyone here played warcraft 3? Think Storm Bolt.

Thus, my experience with using an Akkan first has been overwhelmingly positive. The huge lead it grants in expansion, the combat effectiveness, and the eventual capital-ship finishing power make it truly worthwhile. The only time I would recommend against using it would be on extremely small maps (like Close Encounters), when there is not enough time for the Akkan's strengths to manifest.

As for 2nd (and 3rd, 4th, etc) Capships, mono-Kols are probably best. They deal great damage, are tough as nails, and can nuke capital ships with Gauss (which when combined with Ion Bolt, is very deadly). Kols arent particularly flashy, but they get the job done, which is more than can be said for most of the other TEC capships.

Dunovs have good abilities, but typically not enough anti-matter to use them often. Typically one is forced to turn off all autocasts and use nothing but Shield Restore, and even then only a few times, and only on CapShips. While thats nice, Dunovs just dont deal enough damage, and never end up pulling their weight. Sovas also suffer from dealing exceptionally low damage, but are also very fragile, and dont have very useful abilities until they are a high level. Even then, I'd rather have something else, since Sovas countered hard by flaks. Embargo rushing on very small maps can be interesting, though. Mazras actually arent all that bad, since their damage output is similar to a Kol's, however, they are much less survivable, and their Radiation Bomb isnt very much better than Gauss Cannon.

Ion bolt is good for catching stragglers, but if it's your akkan vs. an enemy kol or something, you're going to be the one that's running. Having a power that can help mop up an already won battle, isn't nearly as valuable as having a power that can help win a battle.

Also, re: targeting uplink and flak frigates, does anyone really have trouble taking down fighters with flaks? They make mince meat out of fighters to begin with, I wouldn't really miss an extra 12% accuracy or whatever it is.

I agree with that general principle, but you have neglected a significant number of facts in your analysis.

Akkans expand much faster, so it is highly likely that an Akkan player will have a stronger economy and a bigger fleet when its time to fight. Kols arent so much stronger than Akkans that a few extra frigates cant make up the difference. Ion Bolt will silence a Kol's guns for a significant portion of the battle, and will practically guarentee a kill if the Kol gets low. If the Akkan has reached level 4, he'll even have level 1 Targetting Uplink. Thus, it is clear that an Akkan does plenty to help win a contestested battle.

targeting uplink is quite useless in many situations, unless theres many things attacking fighters/bombers (flaks or fighters).

Targeting Uplink can also be used to counteract abilities like Vertigo and Deceptive Illusion, which reduce chance-to-hit.

thats why I said its useless in many situations (the one I mentioned doesn't depend on an ability that might not be researched for a ship | used for the cap) theres even one more scenario thats really rare and would barely ever influence the game.

I find that Marzas are much deadlier than Kols; often your fleet lacks the capacity for decent planet bombing and the Marza remedies that. Also Incenidary shells +nuclear missiles is an incredibly damaging tactic.

As a TEC player, I have to go with the Kol as it is the only "combat" rated Cap ship that they have. Everything else for all intents and purposes is support. The Vasari have three "combat" rated Cap ships (Devastator,Marauder,Desolator) which kind of gives them an advantage qualitatively. After mixing and matching Cap ships in different battles, I have come to the conclusion that I prefer the straight knockout ability of the Kol over any perks the others might offer. So now I just use 3-4 Kols in my battle group with Cielos using DT. I miss the 20% extra range that the Akkan TU gave me, but group firing Gauss guns vs opposing Cap ships that have been targeted by the Cielos makes the loss more bearable. If I can take out the enemies Cap ships quickly, then I can divert all antimatter to adaptive shielding and deal with the smaller opposing vessels with the help of my advanced support fleet (ie. Robotics).


Edit: Kol's are also able to sync fire their forward beam weapons. No other races Cap ships are capable of this according to Wiki charts. TEC Cobalts, Cielos, and Robotics are also capable of this although the latter two are worthless offensively without their abilities.

I have to update my opinion just a bit after a game I had last night. Sova carriers for TEC are much more useful than what I originally thought they were. Normally I build a pair of Kol's and match then up with a Dunov, but last night I built a pair of Sovas and matched them up with a Dunov later on in the game. The Sovas had some issues taking over planets with a lot of neutral ships. I had to jump them in and out of a highly fortified Terran planet a couple of times. Once that Dunov was added this group was unstoppable for the rest of the game. When the Dunov got FluxField this group was more than capable of chasing the AI around the rest of the map. The Advent AI was much much harder to deal with, but the Vasari AI got absolutely steamrolled in a matter of minutes even though they were throwing every capital ship and even the kitchen sink at me. I did have a Marza and an Akkan later in the game, but they were blown to bits every time I put them into battle so their job was basically to clean up after everything. Kols, Sovas, and Dunovs are definitely my top picks for TEC capital ships. Pairing 2 Kols or 2 Sovas with a Dunov seems to be a great thing for me. The Akkan only came in handy when fighting the Advent (ion bolt really helped against those Progenitors and Raptures), but the Marza was an exercise in frustration unfortunately.

For some reason I still can't get the hang of the Vasari. I can take on Hard AI as TEC or Advent, but not as Vasari. In fact, I can't seem to handle medium Advent AI when Vasari (medium TEC AI is betable).

I use all the TEC ships, just emphasize Marzas because "This is how space junk is born" lol and "I got a present for ya" Plus they sorta remind me of Millenium Falcon. Cool looking and fun to play.

LOl! Ya I love the voice acting on the Marza as well. Funny stuff. On that note, I have a hard time changing who the lead voice of a fleet should be. I seem to be able to make a different capital ship the "flagship". However, the voice will still be of the first ship produced. annoying

The Marza is for dealing with lots of frigates/cruisers. 3 of its "spells" are area of effect spells that deal damage over time. More useful against masses of frigates than at killing singular ships. Although it does do a considerable amount of damage from its regular weapons since they all seem to be able to shoot at the same target (unlike most cap ships).

Yeah what I like to do is create fleet, then some other ship is leader, then shift+tab over and over till I get a Marza then recreate fleet. This'll put them as leader.

Marza does have the Millenium Falcon look to it. Kol reminds me off the Warlock class ships from Babylon 5.

Yeah the Kol sure does now that you mention it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warlock_class_destroyer

Dunov+Kol is a horrible combo, stop using it.

Dunov is only good with two of them. It's useless with one, great with two. They're fragile as glass and can't defend themselves, but with two they can spam sheild on each other (especially with flux. zomgs.)

Kol+Dunov.. Uhh yeah this works great against newbs that don't know to kill the Dunov first.

Kol is good as it's a good solo cap, and tec caps generally aren't worth making more than two, or one even.
The Sova has nice with it's ability to clear planets quickly early on, lack of enemy flak early on, and embargo on a small map. On a big map.. you don't really want sova.


Vasari:
Kortul or Antorak always. The rest need buffs badllyyyyyyy. The Vulkoras is OKAY, but not as good as Kortul or Antora, doesn't compare to tec's Marza. Like vulkoras lvl 6 ability.. freaking 120 cooldown just to get 200 hp to itself! Sucks. The Carrier and evacuator are simply bleh.(and don't bring up Evacuators aoe jump stopping. That's useless since people won't be running away from it's weak self and it can't chase people with how slow it is anyways.)

Advent:
Really all of them are good. As of current malice+brillance is pretty overpowered but hopefully that'll be nerfed.
I like the mothership since it's always useful pretty much, but it's focus-fire damage is poor(it's dps is very spread) which makes it not as good on small maps.
I'd say rapture is the worst, the rest all all pretty even.

I think for the vasari the whale is the best anti-cap capital ship and anti-planet capital ship.

- (-)6 armour on caps means that they take ~25% - ~33% more hull damage from the whales fleet.
- nearly constant 30 dps (22.5 dps on caps before the -armour) that hits the hull ignoring shields and shield mitigation.
- ability to make enemy ships slower than the whale (enemy scouts will be the same speed, fighters and bombers still faster) and prevent them from phasing for 15 seconds.

Agree about the Kol/Dunov combo. Better off just using robotics and selecting another Kol with the Cap slot.

Even though its tactical value may be in question, simply watching the Raze Planet ability of the Marza is cool enough to justify its existence.

The Advent Halycon needs more love here. You get all the joys of carriers coupled with a suite of extremely powerful abilities. 2 halycons staggering their telekinetic push will render all strikecraft useless, and they will always have antimatter because their other two abilities are passive. the additional strikecraft upgrades make your squadrons very dangerous and then the effect is multiplied by the aura. I never leave home without at least 2 if not more.

Agreed. It just makes me smile when I see it.