OK I say tec for a few resons,

1: they have late game techs and econ to produce ships faster then anyone else.

2: They have an anti-structure ship...the vasrii don't have something to do the same job as well, [that i have found please correct if otherwise]

3: They have a effective defencive system, and a great superwapion. I am sorry to the kostra lovers out there, but the nova cannon actuly can take out planets pop's that then must be redeveloped and re colonized, and in larger maps colony ships are often far enough away to make this a problem.

4: kol battleship. and the marza, need i say more, never mind the sova in the early game...I think we can all see were i am going with this

hay, it works for me.

Granted, starbases can negate the nova's effect, but you still lose the up grades, or at least i did. YOU have oveusly never been sova rushed, just sayin' I did on my first 3 games and desided on tec then. ALSO TEC HAS GREAT ARMOR. the vasrii can cut through shields in the advent defences like a hot knife through soft butter. Also park you marza on the edge of an astroid belt outside the grav-well as far as it can go with a starbase in the middle. 9 times out of ten the other guy doesn't even see the marza, just the few starbase gaurds, [akken, hoshikos, etc] It might just be i find my way into a pack of noobs but the computer does it too, soooooo.

the flack on the hangers, and the abilitys on the guess cannons can make a mean defence, espshaly with a resuppling starbase and repair platforms, mabey a few hoshikos in a near by well to deal with a kostra shot. ALSO i have found that the kol is useful early too if it comes as a 3rd cap ship.

PS if you have a problem with massive spaming that works [yes i know for the other groups it is a contridiction] then just say so. I love spam, both eatible and otherwise. Great for leavling large fleets. ooo and then there is that logistics up grade that lets you have one more building in every system, even dead asteroids.

there is a progression in this game, if you haven't noticed, early game TEC>Vasrii>advent mid-gameVasrii>TEC>Advent

Late game Vasrii= TEC[if spaming] >Advent> TEC [not spaming]. THis is just what i have seen resently, It seems to change as the players adapt. I am sorry to those who like advent, i like them too, but they are just under armed and armored, nice abilitys though.

No, actually, if your planet is bombarded to 0 HP but still has a starbase protecting ownership loss, you do not lose your planet upgrades.

I have been Sova rushed many times. And I've successfully defended myself against it many times as well, once I understood the strategy.

Deciding on which race is the overall best to use after only playing 3 games is a bit hasty, I think.

If you're playing someone who lets you park your Marza on the edge of a massive fight while leveling up to level 6, you're playing against a poor player. If you're playing in a game where building a Argonev in an asteroid belt is viable, your opponent is probably quite bad as well. If your opponent charges headfirst into the starbase in the asteroid belt and loses their fleet so that your cap can level up, your opponent is extremely bad. And factoring in whether the AI falls victim to the strategy should be irrelevant - it's like saying you can beat a 5-year-old at chess.

I'm not intentionally trying to be hostile, but the fact is that competitive games are quite different from what you seem to be thinking they're like. Even getting a capital ship up to level 6 is hard.

That's definitely a plus. Doesn't tilt the balance in favor of TEC though.

Wait, you think Hoshikos are sufficient to deal with a Kostura?

...Seriously?

...

The strength in the Kostura cannon lies in its ability to create a phase stabalizer node at the target planet, allowing the Vasari player to warp in their fleet directly, bypassing heavily entrenched front lines. A single Kostura shot can decisively decide the game in favor of one team or the other.

If you think the Kol is really that useful early-game, you clearly haven't been playing against decent players The Kol's GRG is only marginally useful in slowing enemy caps, its Adaptive Forcefield means little when decent players will be focusing on attacking other ships, and its Flak Burst is only worth the Kol's cost when there are tons of strike craft on the field already.

I take it you've never seen Howthe? in action late-game...

Keep in mind I'm talking about games against decent opponents (that is, on ICO). If you're thinking about what the strongest race is in games against noob humans or against the AI, tons of strategies work, from any race.

You probably shouldn't have static defenses on those worlds anyway if you're playing in a game with decent players, and even then static defenses are rarely effective... if you count on them and your Hoshikos alone to fight off a Vasari invasion via a Kostura, you'll probably find that you'll very quickly lose control of the planet.

If you're playing against a player who has any idea of what they're doing, at least.

I suggest you try playing a few more games online, like maybe in the very common multiplayer 5v5 games on ICO. When I started playing in 5v5s they gave me a very different (better) perspective on the game and strategy. It's hard, but playing against decent opponents adds a whole new dimension to the Sins experience!

Really? That rarely seems to be an issue for most games online because the vast majority of games are decided in under an hour, even in large 5v5 games. When once side is losing and when major lag is starting to kick in, the losing side often decides to surrender/quit and to play another game or get on with life, rather than dragging out the inevitable.

Once you understand the etiquette (which isn't that hard) it isn't bad at all... even relatively bad players come onto ICO often and play with other regulars.

If it's any consolation, they all have counters... which is the reason I often let my opponent do whatever they're planning (spam, rush, whatever) so that I can then attempt to counter them, rather than just spam more LRF of my own and hope it works.

A late-game Advent fleet, properly managed, can provide an excellent defense.

The AI has no idea how to manage its ships/fleets/abilities. Human players do (usually). If you want a sense of exactly how strong an Advent defense can be, try attacking one of the pros who is playing as Advent late-game.

I think so too. Repulsion is simply amazing, and Illuminator swarms are quite scary.

And the phase missile advantage can be partially negated - if you can get the enemy to use their Assailants and Sentinels to fire on your frigates, rather than on your capital ships, the advantage provided by Phase Missiles is minimal, especially if your frigates aren't that durable - and given that Advent frigates seem to be generally slightly better, DPS per cost and supply, than Vasari frigates, I wouldn't be surprised if a skilled Advent player was able to overwhelm a Vasari player late-game.

The only problem is starbases - but if the Advent player is constantly on guard against offensive enemy Orkuluses, and if the map doesn't come down to a key asteroid choke-point (where the Vasari could set up an Orky and a couple PJI), I could see the Advent player winning late-game more than 50% of the time.

Unfortunately a lot of this isn't much more than theorycraft...

Yeah, I also rarely build more than one cap as Advent for the same reason... which helps me to not be at a humongous disadvantage to phase missiles.

Something else that might work late-game would be to have Repulsion to push enemy frigates away from your caps when they start being fired upon. You might have to have top-tier micro though.

seeing as there nostly civilian conversians...

i already know english and if i didnt use punctuationsand sentences on the Writing test (which is required to Graduate) and passed i aint going to do it hear

''Vasari? hmm iv been pronouncing it Visari