my friend... you were actually playing God... which is why you had your ass handed to you... =P

may i simply say... (obviously) that spamming units is not the way to go? capitalising on unrealistic ship imbalances just makes you predictable... if you had varied your fleet, it my not have happened... like you said, you knew how he was going to counter you... but you kept playing your spamming strategy... honestly... as soon as you know your enemy knows your plans, YOU HAVE TO CHANGE THEM!!!

Nothing wrong with spamming assailants in the early minutes of the game as vasari.  I've seen JohnJames do it so many times I can't count.  I've seen tons of "pro" players do it.  The advice that "pros" used to give (a while back, admittedly) was to NEVER build light frigs at the start.  Rather, just jump straight to lrm/assailant (for tec/vasari at least).  Granted, the game has been through a few changes since this advice was fresh - namely after carriers were buffed sometimes people would jump straight to those instead.  However, in general, nothing wrong with an initial assailant spam as vasari.  I would be willing to wager that the number of "pros" who say I'm right would outnumber the number of "pros" who say I'm wrong.

By the way, did you miss the parts where I said I built carriers and enforcers as well?

If you would re-read my post, you would notice that I'm not complaining that I got beat.  Neither am I asking for an explanation of how I got beat.  The fact that I got beat is just fine and dandy with me.  It's peachy keen - really.  I just want someone to "name that smurf."  That's all.

You've just explained why you are so offended at the notion of an initial assailant spam as vasari.  Online play vs. AI play is about as different as night and day.

Look, I respect you as a player and all (I really do - I've seen you play), but are you saying you've NEVER DROPPED A MIL LAB AS VASARI, THEN RUN OFF SOME ASSAILANTS IN THE OPEN?  Are you really saying that?  You mean you wait until you have thoroughly scouted each and every opponent in the game before you start building any units at all?  If you say "yes," I suppose that's fantastic, but to be honest you really are in a 1% bracket if you really do that.

Yeah I agree 1 to 1 it would be tough if not impossible.  I never planned on going 1 to 1 with him, and I never planned on staying with assailants (in fact I didn't - reread my post).

Right, well like I said I don't mind being bold and trying new things even if it causes me to lose.  My initial plan was to try to rush a starbase to my opponent's homeworld and heal it with the carrier, as I said.  I *did* in fact get a starbase to his homeworld, but I didn't get to heal it because my carrier was dead   My starbase bit the dust too, coz he just recalled his fleet and blew it away, even though it had 2 upgrades (hull and weapons).

Perhaps I should say this again, "just in case."  I am actually not complaining that I lost.  I am not upset that I lost.  I am not wondering why I lost (the reason is clear actually - the dude just outplayed me).  I am not saying that a particular unit or tactic is OP.  I am not saying that I did nothing wrong (I obviously did).  I am not saying that he cheated or did anything unfair.  I am not saying that assailants and a carrier cap should be able to defeat illums and a mothership.  I am saying none of these things.  I am simply wondering who the smurf was, because I've played "pros" many times before, and I know what it "feels like" when I lose to one.  I was just curious as to who it was, that's all. 

The reason I disclosed details about the game is because I figured his playstyle would give a clue to the other "pros" out there as to who this dude was, i.e. "Advent, pushing SB's, spamming illums and flaks, then teching to shield guardians?  SIDDY FOR SURE!" or "Hell no that's not Siddy, he never plays like that - sounds more like so-and-so."

Having said that, if you want to analyze the loss "just for fun," that's fine - just understand that I didn't post this because I was screaming about this or that.

See this post:  https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/344976

actually i always found Kortul to be the best anti-Mothership option available to Vasari. Disruptive Strikes really screws up Shield Restore. not that it really matters since if it was a normal map you'd have already built your cap ship by the time your scouts found the enemy cap. going in blind you pretty much just build the egg no matter what. 

if you REALLY wanted to try something unorthodox, instead of taking a shot in the dark and building some cap ship that turned out to be a bad one, you could wait on the cap ship and do early colonizing entirely with frigates. you'd have to wait 3 or 4 minutes until your scouts found the enemy cap (or maybe longer on a big map) but then you could get the perfect counter for him and go right after his cap. 

anyway, i don't think you screwed up Kharma, seems like you played ok (except for the Skiranta thing, but whatever) and just ran into a common situation which is that the Advent have an EXTREMELY good military in the early game. Illuminators with a Halcyon and Mothership supporting them outclass pretty much everything else in the game that's available at tier 3. 

i think the answer to that particular situation is just to avoid a head on fight for a while. carriers won't counter it because he's got a Halcyon (which has its own fighters and the very strong TK Push to blast your squadrons with) and can just build some flaks anyway. i think you've got to go into defense mode for a bit whe you're up against that and make your next push some time in the mid-game where you can make some headway with powerful offensive support. Skarovas and Stilakus can break through just about anything. my response would have been to get defenses up to protect existing territory and then tech up to 6 mil labs as quickly as possible. 

I've actually considered doing this before, I'm just not 100% down on what capship would counter what capship.  I know that Advent battleship mana burn would tend to counter support caps, maybe vasari battleship too with disruptive strikes.

Actually you don't need to wait to choose the counter.  If you just assume the cap your opponent will pick you will be right about 95% of the time, at least with vasari and advent who will take the colonizers (sometimes I see tec take colonizer or battleship instead of marza though).