The Q&A was done in the chat lobby after the game, and I was not aware of a way to log the chat so I do not have a copy. I probably should have written it down, because my mind is blanking now on some of the things he said. But I'll do my best:
Slow and Steady:
One thing he difinitvely stressed is that the game is about many smaller victories adding up to a larger whole, rather than a few large decisive victories that win the game by themselves. Part of this is an emphasis on knowing when to retreat so as to save your ships. In particular, he remarked that if you can eliminate all ship losses within the first 5 minutes, you will have a distinctive edge. He specifically pointed out that he rotates his LRMs when clearing a militia. As soon as one of them starts taking hits, he retreats them from grav well. You can see this in the replay.
Jumping the Gun:
He also made a point of talking about how he sends his colony ship in before all the ships are cleared. He sends them in at the soonest point that he knows it will survive without taking heavy damage. That way he expands quicker and reaps the income sooner.
Playing Vasari:
Capt inquired about how to play as Vasari successfully. Cykur noted that, as Vasari, you MUST be on the offensive ASAP. Because of how expensive the Vasari ships are compared to everyone else, he noted that they are severely hampered midgame. In his exact words, "If you don't get some form of early advantage, then the Vasari are screwed." He further noted that "if you find yourself on the defensive, then that's a big sign that you are probably going to lose."
He also emphasized the importance of grabbing neutrals early and maintaining ownership.
Breaking up the Battleball:
Waxworks asked about how to deal with the Advent as TEC. Unfortunately, I don't really remember what he said about it aside from the fact that it was insanely difficult. Waxworks may hopefully recall and give a better answer, but from what I remember, a major key is to simply keep advent from getting a complete battleball with all the bells and whistles. If they have it, hit the guardians as best as you can, try to find some way to break up the formation, and abuse missile barrage wherever you can to get the advantage. Of course, like I said, I don't really remember what he said, so I may not be giving the right advice.
Beating a Vasari Assailant Rush as Advent:
The first thing he noted, was that Illuminators beat out assailants because of their side beams. Get them out ASAP and run them into the middle of the assailant formation. He also noted that because of the expense of carriers, you're best bet is to pump out LRFs before carriers, and THEN start in on the carriers.
If you can't get illums out quick enough, he noted that massing scouts is a good counter to LRFs because scouts do double damage against them AND because they are MUCH cheaper than LRFS. If you lose an equal amount of scouts as your opponent does LRFs, he's still in the hole because they are much more expensive. Cykur specifically cited that 3 scouts vs 1 LRF is a good ratio.
If your opponent also has skirmishers to protect the LRFs, he noted that you should figure out which scouts are being focus fired and micro them away from the battle to get the skirmishers chasing them. You should have much more scouts than he has skirmishers, so you can leave the rest to still deal with the LRFs.
The scout tactic, he emphasized, is MERELY A DELAYing strategy TO buy you time to GET ILLUMS.
When to Get the Second Cap:
"It depends." He noted that if he is sure his opponent is "folding over" then he will buy a few more caps to hasten the bombardment of planets. He also particularly noted that a good enough opponent can go off colonizing more worlds than you can destroy and buy the time (and resources) to build himself back up to be a threat. Ironically enough, in the replay he just posted on the multiplayer forum, you can see a (sort of) example of just this tactic.
On the flipside, he noted that he will often stick with the first capital he has if the battle remains very close and intense. The resources, in this case, are much better off devoted to creating a larger fleet, especially with the devastating effects of focus fire on a cap.
That's about everything I can remember. If anyone else remembers something I forgot, please feel free to throw it up there.
EDIT: I forgot to mention before: He said to look up all of Raging Amish's guides.
