Please explain the Vasari Loyalist Strip Mining Strategy

Strip to Core is generally only viable early on for players in eco positions, where frontliner allies buffer them from enemies...you also shouldn't be getting that many military labs, certainly no more than 2, and maybe not any to start....

You need to be in eco, and you need to expand as fast as possible....if you are trying to do it early on as a frontliner you probably are going to get wiped....

Seleuceia is talking from a multiplayer perspective. If you're doing single player, its still quite possible for a competent player to get striped to the core in less than an hour, not matter what your position on the map. If you're really going to go for it, only build one military lab for assailants, or two if you need to starbase something. You'll need to practice rapidly colonizing, I've seen it done with two evacuators and two migrators with frigates heading into the center of the map trying to colonize everything in site. With this sort of aggressive expansion, lab space really a problem, and try to build some more caps than normal once you get civilian evacuations. Don't bother with trade or really building anything other buildings besides labs. Once you get 7 civic labs, get shipboard labs and SttC ASAP and then start scuttling the worlds closest to your enemies (maybe leave one for a ship yard), you'll quickly have the labs to switch to full military, and shipboard labs should give you at least 4 or 5 military labs by then so you can start building most military units and a titan.

Thanks, and yeah, I'm more worried about single player right now. Still learning the game and just wanting to try out different strategies. Any other good Vasari Loyalist strategies that I should be practicing? The sheer amount of tech to research is a bit overwhelming, so I've just been sort of grabbing everything when I can. Any particular ships or research lines I should just ignore, build order recommendations, etc... would be appreciated.

You only need 2 planets to rush STTC.  Upgrade their logistics, 4 Civics at your home, 3 at a roid or dwarf.  Or scuttle your frigate factory and put 5 on your home and 1 each on adjoining roid & dwarf.  Don't buy Military labs.  With 2 Cap ships you'll soon enuf have 2 free labs.  Don't colonize larger planets untill you can immediately strip them.  Then go on a stripping spree.  Build multiple Cap ships for more income & labs, and use scouts to grab neutrals.

It's a joke, really!  Late game VL are ridiculously OP.  I won't even play them anymore. 

I'm tired of playing them too, but that doesn't change the fact that most people are wisening up and playing them online...makes MP games really boring now....

Only research what you need. Anything more is just a waste.

Generally speaking, Ice/Volcanic colonisation, trade and media hubs are the main ones to get in the civilian tree apart from SttC and Phase Stabiliser Nodes. Full Terran Lockdown, the resource techs (both useless with SttC) and Phase Space Monitoring are some of the better secondary choices.

In the military tree, get corvettes and long range frigates and then flak or carriers depending on what you are fighting. Repair bays and star bases are very important techs. Phase missile techs are a must. Hull and shield upgrades are useful when you get a larger fleet. Don't bother with skirmishers and siege frigates. All cruiser types are very good.

Keep in mind once you strip worlds, you lose their economic advantages. STTC is great for short term gain, but if your enemy is an ecoed TEC player, they can keep up with you if they are good. Its better to eco conventionally then strip your enemy's worlds so they cannot retake them. 

Also strip your worlds if your enemy is going to take them. That deny's them a foothold and give your resources to fortify the next world or build up your fleet. 

Note: I know this strategy is not as good for rushing, but is it better for online games. I've have seen too many vas loyal players cripple themselves by stripping all their worlds then have no economy once their resources reserves are spent. It also cripples their ability to feed their allies because they no longer have any money. 

Vasari is just a joke, so unbalanced race, every brainless monkey plays them - starbase rushes, striping enemy planets, late game phase missle army gives no chances to anything. Phase missles bombers just lol.

I'd like to join the Whine Division,Vasari is op.

Its hard to beat VL, but in the end your economy player should be doing quite amazing and if you protect them from the VL and are able to hold on all fronts, you will outlast the VL 's economy.  Then it becomes a war of attrition.  Time is the VL's worst enemy, hold out and don't give up!

Although, facing all these VL's in multiplayer only mean one thing, you need to get at least one VL of your own on your team or else you are just plain under-powering your team.

Do they need more balancing? Yes.  

Hmmmmm...  I just beat the VL with AR, VL on Vicious.... it was a great game, but I still won in the end.  Yeah, the VL titan is amazing, but so it the AR's "Angel of Death".... and with the Advent, culture can be a bitch!!!  hehehe

Having said that, I've only had Rebellion about a week, and hadn't really gotten to the VL yet... until this afternoon.  I just started a game as VL, and was reading the tech tree, when the full impact of strip-mining, along with all the other new techs the VL have..... and I had to stop and pause as it hit me... wow!!!  Strip-mining planets, cap ships with labs.... star-bases with jump engines.... OMG....

OP????  Oh yeah, probably....  but what fun!!!  I am blown away by not just the strip-mining ability, but combined with having taxable populations and labs on your cap ships, along with moving your capital to your Titan.... and even building a starbase that can jump... you can literally wander the systems without owning one planet... a roving death squad.  And I think this is where strip-mining really comes into it.  Basically capture a world, strip it bare, and then move onto the next one....

I'm gonna go restart a 6 player FFA with me as VL and all the other races set to cruel, and purposly aim for becoming one huge, roving fleet... only own a planet long enough to suck resources, build frigate and cap ship factories, if needed, to rebuild my fleet, then strip-mine the world and move on.  And see if I can survive without having a home system, or if the other races can stop me.... hehehe......

wait, I mispoke on that last post.... VR can jump a starbase, not VL.... but that actually makes more sense for a roving VL death fleet.  Having a starbase that can jump seems somewhat OP for an already OP race.....  and just feels a little weird with a mobile empire....