I finished a play through that resulted in an occupation victory, and I have to say, I was really impressed with the new look they were giving the Vasari ships. I mean, sure, the TEC ships looked a little bit better, but man, did those Vasari and their new weapon effects look sweet. Especially like the Enforcer's new wave beams AND the new phase missile graphics. Awesome sauce.

The game began with me as Loyalist. I expanded, took over a bunch of systems, basically playing pure economy route until  the rebel AI jumped in with their Titan. It was only level one, and only a Ragnarok, so a low level starbase and several capital ships were able to chase it away. I built the God-machine I mean Ankylon Titan, and sent it to the pirate system. Without any effort, it can solo the entire pirate system and feed up 2-3 levels, making it nigh unkillable. 

I had to withdraw twice with the Ankylon. Once when it was around level 5 and it got into a slugfest with 5 capital ships, and a level 1 rebel titan. Then the ally of this player jumped in with THEIR titan and I saw hull was dropping too rapidly, so decided to withdraw.

I also noticed the titan construction notifications are still bugged. You get the message "Scouts report the enemy is building a new type of warship" when a titan is deployed, not when its being constructed.

Loyalist Novalith spam is nuts... I mean, it is entirely counterable with planetary shields and a starbase with auxilliary government as a backup (overall probably costs less than 1 Novalith too), but I am concerned about the ability of the Advent and Vasari Rebels to deal with Novalith spam without planetary shields, as they mitigate a tremendous amount of bombardment damage. Vasari Loyalist? Pssh, they don't need planets anyways by the time Novalith spam becomes a problem. Just eat 'em and leave 'em.

Overall, thus far I am very pleased with my Rebellion experience and await eagerly to return to my Vasari roots.