Favorite Starting Cap Ship

The Advent Colony capship (the Progenitor Mothership) is an amazing vessel. Not only is its Colonize ability arguably the most powerful of the races' colony capships (20%/40%/60% planet upgrade cost reduction?!), but its other two abilities (Malice and Shield Regeneration) are ridiculously powerful.

I haven't tried this yet; but I hear that a Progenitor Mothership can take out the militia at a Terran or Desert world by itself with level 1 Shield Regeneration.

More so than the TEC Akkan or the Vasari Evacuator, the Progenitor has no problem being your primary combat vessel.

Other good options are the races' battlecruisers (Kol / Radiance / etc. -- I don't play Vasari much either), the Mazra Dreadnought, or the Sova Carrier (for a nasty starting-game rush on small maps, with the Embargo ability.)

I'll try that next I guess, for Advent I've only used the Radiance/Halcyon. Though I agree, the Sova's embargo can be brutal.

As TEC I either go the Akkan colonizer ship... Or for the Marza Dreadnaught.. IDK but it seems to take down ships much faster then the Kol can it seems..

Advent I always always go Advent Mothership.. Followed by the Halycon carrier.. I am actually not fond of the other 3 capital ships the Advent have to offer.

I only played tec so far(i know, bad bad upshift) and my favorite starter cap ship from experience is hands down the Sova carrier. I dont think i need to explain why lol.

I go with a Radiance usually as Advent if I'm expecting to run into an enemy fairly early because it's pretty good at slugging it out, and the experience is very valuable. It can run into any world except the ones with multiple Kodiaks right out of the box, and can clear them fairly fast (the Progenitors from my experience have problems with this because the flak frigates chew up their fighter/bomber wings). Once the that beast is leveled to with Cleansing Brilliance and teamed up with a Progenitor Mothership, the hurt can really come down.

The Mothership isn't a bad second, especially with it's Shield Restore, but Malice in an early engagement with an enemy when there aren't huge numbers of ships (especially if it's only level 1 or 2 Malice) won't be that effective, and although the Mothership can still use it's Shield Restore which is wonderful, but I find them more early a bit later in the game. The Mothership has a lot of useful abilities (Shield Restore, Colonize, and Malice) but there's only so much experience (or credits) to go around early in the game, you can't really have any be as effective as they can be.

To me, the Mothership is great, but the valuable experience from cleaning out Militias and from early skirmishes over worlds (where it's tough to kill or lose a Capital) is better spent on the Radiance.

I can confirm this. With a tiny bit of microing, I've defeated the following force:

3x LRM Frigate
2x Kodiak
4x Cobalt
2x Flak

...which is the hardest militia i've ever gone up against. Taking minimal hull damage, was about 85% after finishing them.

I always pick the mothership because even though it's slow it can tear through any militia I want allowing me to cap any planet in time. LV1 Shield Regen at the start, then use the XP you get from blowing up all the militia to get Colonize or pay the difference. Amazing.

now that i am not longer a newb I always get 1 colony capital, and the rest are frigates and cruisers. More capital ships are just not worth it. With a few exceptions.

Sometimes I get a second colonizer to be the core of a secondary fleet.

With the advant I like getting one carrier for its ability to amplify damage of ALL nearby ships (making it a worthwhile addition to any large fleet).

The vasari colony ship 6th level ability destroys planets rapidly AND gives you tons of money, it is a priority. And I will just keep building more of them, it is also VERY powerful against enemy ships.