
Prior to 1.04 the most effective DamagePerSecond dealer won the game. 1.05 is still fairly new, and I will edit in additional viable strategies as I receive them. These strats are not necessarily valid post 1.04, but I've included them to give players a frame of reference for the very slooow LRF blob making it's way toward their homeworld, etc.
The goal is to eventually have a resource that can be referred to by anyone, a playbook that will teach you something useful every time you look at it. If you disagree with any points below I will not take it personally, but please present your points politely and back them up with replays, or you might be ignored. If you post with an outlandish strategy or tactic and can't back it up with a replay I will not edit it in – this is less an exercise in theorycraft than a tool for viable play.
If you can provide replays illustrating effective use of a particular strategy I will edit them into the main post, as well as pointing to any commentary you would like to leave. Hopefully starting, casual, and veteran players will find this useful, and I encourage players to post their own thoughts, counter-arguments, and additions. Please note that what follows below can be used in single player to great effect but is directed at a multi-player audience.