Well no one but me seems to play Vagy.
Just some notes and corrections here:
A lot of labbing has been done with missiles vs. pulsars. The main reason you’ll own them is that you have EMP going, which will cut their numbers, not so much due intrinsic unit superiority. Hiigs can actually upgrade pulsars to L1 much more cheaply than you. This means (if they’ve got some sense) they’ll throw in lsome torps as well. Of course, this only gives them an advantage if you let them chose the battlefield, since their frigs are sooo slow. 
So much yes to using missiles for anti-coll work. A few lasers are nice for killing refs too, which I think I mentioned somewhere else.
Command vettes boost your firepower and accuracy by 15% each up to a total of 40%. They don’t do anything to enemy firepower or accuracy.
Based on the firepower ratio, it’s more like 7/6 for Ions vs. HMF. Your biggest advantage when going HMF vs. Ions is that you get damage spillover since your firepower is missile based. Improperly targeted ions will waste a lot of firepower vs. frigs. Ions work best when going after bigger targets, but HMF just as good at killing frigs as caps.
And yes, Vay BCs have a huge advantage over Hiig ones because they can maneuver and STILL FACE THEIR TARGET. The fact that Hiig BCs do not do this routinely makes me angry. Dumbest thing ever. So the first rule of fighting Hiig BCs is get above or below them. On the other hand, getting L2 speed for Hiig BCs only costs 2500 ru total (compared 8500 for Vay), so Hiig players have no excuse for not keeping up with at least one Vay BC target.
When engaging Vay cruisers you must dance in close so only the missiles can target you. Never let that Big Cannon of Doom target you. This gets a bit tricky when they is more then one cruiser in the field… not like when fighting Hiig “Dur let’s not pitch the ship” BCs.
A quick reminder about BC weapons: Your weapons take penalties against frigates! Hiig BC Ions do 50% damage against frig armour, Vay Trinity goes down to 40% accuracy (don’t matter as much against bunched up frigs) and Vay BC Missiles do 60% damage. Target DDs and BCs first unless you have a very compelling reason to take the penalty vs. frigs first.
just so everyone can know
When going Vaygr against vaygr, go CORVETTES
i was recently informed that many of our players, when playing vay, after doing ints, want to build the big bad uber sexy im the best frigate in the game HMF… well guess what!?! HMFS = a pimple on Laser corvetts asses.
So the ever knowing sexy pit Viper, what happens if my enemy doesnt go HMF after swarm?
PFFFT, then he’s going vetts too!!! duh! so go missle vetts, out swarm him, spank a carrier or two, screw with his ru op!
In conclusion, vay vs vay. always go swarm-> ints → HMF. any other order is gonna get ya dead.
Pit Viper|SF out.
cough swarm → vettes → HMF cough
This also has the benefit of stopping your opponent from going lasers himself, because if he does, your missiles will own him. Laser vettes also stop DDs (another popular choice) cold because DDs can’t return fire against them, unlike HMF.
Ugh… guys, it’s not as simple as ints–>vettes(missile)–>frigs. If the opposite side goes swarming EMP and then straight to lasers, they can down your supporting carriers <i>before</i> your missile vettes have a chance to rape them.
The ONLY effective vaygr strategy is probe and counter. You need to watch mods, keep an eye on RU sizes (obviously they can’t go effective swarm on low cols, so you’ll have some play room), and for Pete’s Sake build a cloak mod on your production ships. I can’t stress these small things enough.
No game is won by a cut-and-dry strategy. You must always adapt to the situation, and think of innovative ways to screw your opponent over.
A little side note, to effectively swarm in games outside 1v1 you will NOT get the opportunity to advance to frigs once you have your swarm rolling. Vay. RUs don’t alllooowwww for this to happen, even on 20/20 high multiplier. You have to remember that carriers lose a mod when you build a new one. So advancing to frigs will cut your fighter/vette replenishment rate… and those mods are time-costly to build. You lose fighter supremacy because you wanted to move to frigs and you’re a goner.
Hope that helps out… I don’t want to see anyone playing Vaygr with the notion that you’ll play a good game solely based on a build line strategy.
I’d go so far as to say this is the only effective general strategy, period. In fact, I think I might have already gone so far as to say that in another thread around here. The only time it will fail is if the other team uses an advanced build (like research sharing) and you don’t know how to counter it. These can also be tricky to spot, since you have to watch for unit handoffs.
That being said, the point about Vay vs. Vay progression still stands. If the other guy goes emp swarm + lasers, you’d bloody well go emp swarm + missiles! And if they aren’t going vettes, you’d better get lasers out, because that’s the most effective option (in terms of unit survivability) against frigs and caps.
Also, Vay must be prepared to manage dimished build capacity for older units. As soon as you move to vettes from fighters, your fighter production capacity goes down unless you build another CC (helllo expensiveness). This makes retreating damaged units absolutely critical. So as a note to Hiigy players on teams with Vay players… cover their swarms FFS. It’s in your own best interest. I’m glad you brought it up again, because I can’t stress this point enough: Losing fighter supremacy is a good to lose.
Also, a side note… the resource multiplier only affects the total amount of RU in each rock. Harvest rates, and thus sustainable production rates, remain the same no matter which multiplier you’re playing under.
Well, I’ve decided to try to learn Vaygr as well as I know Hiigy, so I’ve been mucking around with them lately. I’ve been trying a pretty standardish build for most team games, which seems to work pretty well.
4/4 Colls. Res mod on MS. Queue 6 scouts on MS.
Vette research once res mod is up.
Fighter mod on CC when 2 colls are left.
Start a vette mod on MS asap.
Queue 12 ACs from CC.
Queue EMP, L1 fighter engines, and Laser Vette research. Punch laser research up to the front if the enemy isn’t attacking.
Start lasers building as soon as research is done.
You can change things up from there. The main point of this is to get a few laser vettes on the field early (preferebly to attack mobile refs/Vay CCs) with some pretty decent escorts. The EMP coverage allows you to engage pretty decently sized swarms provided you have intie backup from your teammates.
Update:
I’ve tried running this with the role of the FS and CC reversed, and it seems to run much more smoothly. As a bonus, the FS can keep all of the ACs docked (due to its extra capacity), for extra counter-intelligence value.
I’ve run this strat a couple of times now, against reasonably skilled opponents, and it’s very flexible. You can forgo laser research and go missiles if you need to. Usually I try to get out a full complement at L2 and then transfer to a team-mate so I can keep on pumping vettes (it makes sense, given how much RU you have to spend on upgrades!).
This works really well with a Higgy frig build, because the vettes + the EMP swarm can protect them against almost anything. Bombers are doomed, ints are doomed, lasers are doomed (build missiles), missiles are doomed (just get a few torps out to complement missiles), and other frigs/caps are doomed (go lasers!). Meanwhile, a handful of flaks (3-4) can protect the swarm. This makes for a very powerful and flexible team build.
I’ve been encouraged enough by this experiment that I’m going to keep playing with Vay openings. I’ll post more about my Vaygr adventures as they arise.