What is your favourite ship - and why?

[Fenris]

My favorite ship is probably the Zoltan Cruiser

Although you start with less reactor power, you start with Zoltan Shields and one of my favorite weapons, the halberd beam.

Also,
I unlocked the Crystal Cruiser with my fist playthrough with it

[SgtFrog]

Hrm, tough choice. Here are my favorites so far:

Kestrel B: Starts with 4 crew right off the bat, and it's a pretty diverse crew too! Plus, the Basic Lasers can take down most one-shield craft easily (and can be sold for a quick 10 Scrap once you find/buy better weapons). Good airlock positions too.

Engi A: Small ship (which means your Defense Drone is a little more effective), plus the Ion Blast II + Anti-Ship Drone can take you all the way to Sector 4 or 5 if you're lucky (and patient). Of course, you should have better weapons/drones by then, plus more crew, but if you don't, it's nice to know that you can make it so far with just starting weapons.

Zoltab B: The Pike Beam combined with two Ion Blast I is hilarious. Line up your shots right, and you can easily carve off 4 or 5 hull damage to the enemy ship! The airlock positioning is odd, and you need another crewmate to free up the Zoltan pilot so he can do something else, but it's a great ship. In one run, because of the Zoltan Shield, I didn't have to repair my ship at all until around Sector 5.

[Kierany9]

I'll have to say, I love both Kestrel A and Kestrel B the most. Why? The Kestrel is definitely the jack-of-all-trades ship, with ridiculous firepower early-game on both layouts. The Kestrel A's Artemis+Burst II can take down a shield and then hammer the rest of the ship with burst fire for easy wins until sector 4. The ship also has room for other types weapons and systems which can all be added as long as you don't lose all your scrap, making it the most vertasile ship in the game.

And don't get me started with the Kestrel B's Basic Spam. Having the enemy ship pelted with 4 simultaneous lasers is more than enough until the enemies start upgrading their shields to level 3. Just switch some of them for Burst II or Heavy II, add a couple of drones and it's enough to beat the Flagship at the end of the game(I've done it with this. In fact, that has been my only victory). Also, 1 or 2 Auto-Reloaders+Pre-Igniter allows for the Kestrel B to tear through everything late-game before they get a single shot off (you deal 3-5 damage right off the bat AND bypass level 3 shields, disabling them for the time being if you shot the shield systems).

Other than that, I like the Battle Bagel(Engi Cruiser A) and the Fed Cruiser A(No cloak is what hurts it the most IMO)

[Zihq]

I love the Carnelian (crystal B) and The Basilisk (Mantis B) a lot, because having the four-person teleporter is so awesome. The Basilisk can be hellish to start off with though, because you only have two guys in your crew and no weapons of any kind. Automated ships and Zoltans will F you up, and an enemy medbay can make things very difficult early on, although very rewarding when you pull cool stuff off. I just recently spent about 25 minutes killing a group of SIX rocks on a ship with a medbay using just my two starting mantis. That took some very serious micro to pull off, but I was so happy when I finally killed the last of them. Once you get further ahead and get more crew things get a lot easier. The Carnelian is easier to start with, although automated ships are impossible to beat early on (can't even whittle them down with a boarding drone). Medbays are no longer much of a problem though, and it's far easier to disable dangerous rooms with the AWESOME Lockdown power. Just teleport into the room and lock people out while you destroy the room. Really the only downside with that ship is the lack of early weaponry, but overall I think that's the easiest ship to beat the game with, although not the most consistent. I often restart a few times very early on if I get multiple impossible encounters. That one extra crew member over The Basilisk is a massive help as well as the lockdown power.

If I want to destroy ships instead of killing people I quite like the Zoltan ships, because Zoltans are awesome, and the shield is really useful early on. I think I prefer the B-version, because relying on missiles early on is a bit of a bummer, and the layout on B is better. It's very easy to get through shields with the ion cannons, and quite easy to keep the enemy weapons locked down too. The beam might be too weak to really destroy rooms, but combined with some ioning it works well enough. If I want a fun challenge I'll go for the stealthy B with its big ass beam weapon. That weapon is just SO MUCH FUN TO USE. It's just painfully hard to avoid damage early on. The trouble with the stealth ships is that it sometimes takes ages to find shields for sale, and being able to afford to buy them. Still, that ship has managed to snatch a spot on my top 5 runs. I just don't remember when and how that happened.

I'll stop now before I start listing even more ships..

[fryet]

I think my favorite ship so far is Engi-A (only played the starter, kestrel and Engi ships so far). With Engi A, I had 3 ion weapons, automatic preloader, 1 anti-ship 1 drone, and 2 beam drones. I didn't have cloak, but I just sliced right through the flagship's shields, and beat it down so quickly it didn't have a chance. Finished with half my ship's hull too. I want to try and do that again, but with anti-ship 2 drone instead.

[Pershonkey]

I have 3 favorite ships, the Basilisk, the Nesasio, and the Torus. The Basilisk, probably my favorite out of those three, is an amazing boarding ship, with a 4 man teleporter and 2 starting Mantis, you can wreck most ships without any trouble until you start seeing medbays pop up. The lack of weapons and crew can be an early game killer, especially if you have multiple encounters with Zoltan or AI ships early on. Not to mention only 3 weapon slots, and the fact that to fill your teleporter and systems, you'll have no extra crew to help put out fires and things like that. While weapons are pretty RND dependent, getting more crew isn't usually that hard, and given the quantity of slaver ships and boarding capabilities right off the bat, you'll be able to get more crew on all but the worst runs, and sometimes fill up your teleporter with Mantis before sector 2. Also, starting out with 2 shields is great, and the free defense drone (Use it) and the boarding drone (Sell it, it's only really useful for AI ships, and then it takes forever) make it a very good defensive ship. It's very luck dependent, but you can really have some great runs with it. It does what it does and it does it well.

The Nesasio also has some glaring flaws in the beginning. No shields? I'll stick with the Torus, thank you very much... After I got the courage to try it, I got chewed up every playthrough. What was wrong with this ship? Then finally, I started playing it correctly, and it was a blast. It's really the opposite of the Basilisk in that it is a pure offensive ship right away (Minus the cloaking) with a devastating early game combo that can easily destroy ships in the first couple sectors, although quickly becomes obsolete. The key is the timing, and if you don't like to micromanage your cloaking and weapons so everything happens right when it should, this ship could take some getting used to.

The Torus is the most all-around good ship that I like, with it's main weaknesses being it's reliance on drones and weak fighting crew.Otherwise, it's a good ship, and a monster if you can equip it right. For example, my fastest rebel flagship victory took place when i had this ship loaded out with 2 Ion Bs Mk II, 1 Burst Laser Mk II, combat drones I and II, a drone recovery arm, and a teleporter with 2 Mantis. Certainly the least dependent on luck right at the beginning, and a force to be reckoned with if played correctly.

Personally, I'm not a huge fan of the Rock cruisers, as they have an over reliance on missiles, which I really hate. I tend not to use missiles at all, as I'm very frugal when it comes to resources like that and to have it but not use it is a wasted weapon slot. Also, I have no strong love or dislike for the federation cruisers, as they are, in my opinion, the single ship that cant be turned into a boarding ship without wasting the amazingness that comes in weapon form that is the artillery beam, and when I play it with weapons it feels more than a little overpowered. The Bravias is a good ship, but not my favorite, and I have yet to try a serious playthrough of the Carnelian even though I unlocked it ages ago. When I'm not boarding with Mantis, it just doesn't feel... Right... I'm going to have to try it and the Fed ships again, since a lot of people seem to swear by them, but 4 Mantis aboard a single ship is almost always a death sentence.

[Iranon]

The ones that stand out in term of sheer power:

Carnelian: 4-person teleporter and starting crew trivialise most boarding attempts. Lockdown + cloak trivialises most enemy loadouts for the first few sectors.
Zoltan B: Most useful augmentation, Zoltans are great to have, starting weaponst can go for crew kills and chew through any number of shield bubbles. Has the occasional autoloss (multiple beams, beams in asteroid field), apart from that it's golden.
Engi A: Highest scrap value, starting weapons can go for crew kills and chew through any number of shield bubbles. Compact shape (good for defense drones), 3 drone slots,

Still, I prefer the Man of War over any of them.

[Jasina]

Kestrel B: It have a good crew, good firepower in early game and it's my lucky ship.

[Terminus]

Mantis B. Finding some good boarders is tough, but I generally find a prisoner in a ship who can take over as my pilot, allowing me 2 Mantis Boarders and a good chance at finding 2 more Mantis and assorted crew.

Also had my first victory with a Vanilla ship that wasn't pure luck.

http://puu.sh/4LQPm.png

[R4V3-0N]

Federation Cruiser A: Osprey

It was so sweet to unlock it after finishing the game at least once, and to have such a good looking ship with good weapons is another bonus. I love the Artillery and I love Federation ships. It has 4 weapon slots + Artillery, got a good starting crew, and also it makes you slightly harder for your ship to be disarmed with enemy ion, boarders, or fires being that there 2 separate areas for artillery and weapons.

Zoltan Cruiser (A&B):

I like the usual weapon combo they have with ions and lasers and the zoltan shield is handy, also the zoltan crew which will really stand out in early and late game (when you max out reactor for eg and ion storms), the B was the fastest 2nd layout I unlocked for the Z. Cruiser and also It was the first ship I won in with a Ion blast I, Ion blast II, and 2 Pike beams.

Engi Cruiser A:

It plays really different using an ion blast and drones, it also has 3 drone bays which are nice, It looks cool and it is great having a ship that the other race of the Federation (Engi) use. How ever I am a bit hopeless in the last stand with the Engi, often having bad luck and getting no better offence drones or literally any weapon.