Returning Armada: The end all of team games?
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The Vasari are a race that have seemingly no benefit, but when you look a lot closer into their tech tree, there's the phase stabilizer tech tree that leads up to the eventual "Returning Armada" ability. I've used this ability extensively in team games and I have come to the conclusion that it is simply too powerful. A Vasari player who successfully employs this ability in conjunction with multiple phase stabilizers per planet can simply have a massive and powerful navy delivered to him in a matter of minutes.
Using this ability in several games i have obtained max popcap fleets with little loss in economy because I had to only pay for my phase stabilizers and the research. After that all of my time was spent upgrading these ships. In relatively no time at all a vasari player can amass a HUGE navy.
There are drawbacks:
- Expense - This ability is incredibly expensive. Each phase stabilizer costs 1500 credits, around 100 or so metal, and 300 crystal. The research techs to get to returning armada alone cost around 4000 creds, a respectable amount of metal, and probably in the order of 1600 crystal. The ability itself costs 1900(Cr) + 300(M) + 550(Cry) to research.
-Risk - Each planet must sacrifice insane amounts of tactical slots to use a phase stabilizer, leaving your worlds lightly defended and at risk of raid. This issue is mildly reversed by the fact that at any time you can warp a fleet in that star system from a planet that has a phase stabilizer or an antorak marauder to another that has a phase stabilizer, effectively making it easy to respond to threats.
-Time - The research and time it takes to get returning set up is quite large. It is perhaps one of the biggest weaknesses of the strategy, but is countered by the fact that this is best employed in a team game, where one can stall for time with their allies supporting them.
All said and done, I feel the ability yields greater rewards than risks. Over time a vasari player who develops his planets with many phase stabilizers can mass a new fleet virtually as quickly as other fleets are destroyed.
Using this ability in several games i have obtained max popcap fleets with little loss in economy because I had to only pay for my phase stabilizers and the research. After that all of my time was spent upgrading these ships. In relatively no time at all a vasari player can amass a HUGE navy.
There are drawbacks:
- Expense - This ability is incredibly expensive. Each phase stabilizer costs 1500 credits, around 100 or so metal, and 300 crystal. The research techs to get to returning armada alone cost around 4000 creds, a respectable amount of metal, and probably in the order of 1600 crystal. The ability itself costs 1900(Cr) + 300(M) + 550(Cry) to research.
-Risk - Each planet must sacrifice insane amounts of tactical slots to use a phase stabilizer, leaving your worlds lightly defended and at risk of raid. This issue is mildly reversed by the fact that at any time you can warp a fleet in that star system from a planet that has a phase stabilizer or an antorak marauder to another that has a phase stabilizer, effectively making it easy to respond to threats.
-Time - The research and time it takes to get returning set up is quite large. It is perhaps one of the biggest weaknesses of the strategy, but is countered by the fact that this is best employed in a team game, where one can stall for time with their allies supporting them.
All said and done, I feel the ability yields greater rewards than risks. Over time a vasari player who develops his planets with many phase stabilizers can mass a new fleet virtually as quickly as other fleets are destroyed.
