For you trolls who doubt the power of the VL titan...
Test 1: lvl 1 VL titan with 25 overseers (325 fleet supply) vs. 100 Kodiaks (1000 fleet supply)...points in hull and desperation...
VL titan levels after killing 5 Kodiaks (10 if you had another cap there, but I didn't)...
When the titan died, about 90 Kodiaks are left with an average hull of around 50%...
Test 2: lvl 2 VL titan with 25 overseers vs. 100 Kodiaks...points in hull, desperation, and weapons (4th point doesn't matter)...
VL titan levels after killing 8 Kodiaks...at which point now you get that juicy lvl 2 desperation...
When the titan dies, about 80 Kodiaks are left with an average hull of around 30%...
Test 3: lvl 3 VL titan with 25 overseers vs. 100 Kodiaks...points in hull, desperation, and weapons...
Titan walks away at lvl 8 and with nearly all its hull...didn't even need to use Maw...
Now some of you nay-sayers out there are probably like "But Sel, this is grossly unrealistic"....you're right, odds are no one is going to have 100 Kodiaks, which means they are even more screwed against the VL titan...more likely, they won't even have HCs (probably LFs or LRFs), which means their ships will die even faster to desperation...even if they did have that many frigates, you can bet the VL would then be able to field a lot more supporting fleet...
Corvettes are the worst thing to use since they are the most vulnerable to desperation...I have tried numerous times to corvette spam even low level VL titans to see if it works (since corvettes apparently are the titan counter in this game)...it doesn't....and if you think you can run once your corvettes take enough damage, micro phase jump will show you otherwise...
Of course there's always the bomber spam option...
Test 4: lvl 3 VL titan with 25 overseers (325 fleet supply) vs. 50 Aerias with 150 bombers (1000 fleet supply)...points in hull, desperation, and micro phase jump...
Titan walks away at lvl 8...now granted, after killing the carriers (still didn't use Maw) I had to micro phase jump to get away from the remaining bombers...but since they will all die anyway that's basically just some free XP I missed out on...
I can practically hear it already..."but Sel, a skilled player would break up their carriers into small groups"....yeah, and a skilled Vasari could have micro phased jump their ass out of there to a planet with an Orky and repair bays whenever they wanted to...they also could have been using a lot more than one third the fleet supply of the opposing force...throw in a few Kortuls with JW and some carriers with fighters, and the VL would still be in great shape....
I suppose some Advent lover would play the Repulsion card now...did I mention I didn't have any PM wielding kanraks or bombers?
The bottom line is that the VL titan is by far the hardest to "counter" (if that word is even appropriate)...you need overwhelming force...we are talking like 2 or 3 players tag teaming just the titan...having your own high level titans would help wipe out the support ships for the VL...of course, that's assuming your titans can withstand the Vasari bomber spam that all too often accompanies the VL fleet...and the odds of an Orky being involved are fairly high as well, even if the VL is on the offensive...
Bottomline is that the VL titan is the single closest thing to an "I win" button this game currently has...
Yes, it is true that you need to have a good early game to even get your VL titan....yes, it is true that you need skill to handle it properly...yes, it is true that other high level titans are pretty good...
But no other titan with its faction's support ships is as strong at lvl 1...no other titan has micro-phase jump, the ultimate "Get out of jail Free" card...no other titan has Maw (which I didn't even use in the above tests)...
That VL also get Orkies and Kortuls with JW is just insult to injury for the poor Advent and TEC blokes...