Aigh't, first-off, greetings to everyone, a completely new player here..

I have played some "Introductory" games with the AI, to grasp the mechanics and such, but only with the TEC faction as my race..

Suffice to say, it went quite easy with Normal opponents - I like to turtle it out, it is the term I believe, get a hold on some planets and establish a self sufficient economy, and then make up a massive invasion fleet and take over the rest of the planets..

Now, I tried a game with the Vasari, just because I lke the ship looks, but I soon found myself with the last place in economy, fleet and colonization graphs, and while my only fleet was duking it out in anoter sector, a large invasion fleet (TEC invasion fleet) appeared at my home sectors, which haven't really been fortified as in previous games due to a lack of resources.. And I certainly don't have a defensive fleet due to, yep, low resources..

So there you go - same AI, similar map and game settings, only a different race, and yet the basic strategy I relied upon doesn't work. Now I am at quite a loss, as I understand, Vasari are a combat faction of sorts, but I can't really get it how one can make up a fleet with no resources in the first place.. (And the lower survivability of the ships doesn't really hlp that much either).

So, that said, are there any guidelines to playing an efficient Vasari?

Or with the aforementioned in mind, should I just keep with TEC?