I had a rough start in this game -- bad enough that I thought about throwing in the towel and trying again. Two sun systems in a row, with at least one drone, in a Mantis A ("Gila Monster") wasn't looking good. The turning point, I think, was when I got a Burst Laser II early on. That gave me the firepower to handle most early ships, and the Mantises took care of the rest. From that point on, the RNG was unusually kind -- so much so that it gave me no less than two more BLIIs. That's what I think makes this my best overall ship -- I've had Rock crews that were about as good in the boarding department, and others (like an Osprey) that were almost as good in space battles, but none of them that could do it all like this one can.
All the crew are either very high or maxed out in their specialties. The equipment is the only thing that's a bit weak; I had the Mantis Pheromones, I think a shield charger, and I can't remember what else (which suggests to me that it must not've been that good


The flagship at the end was just totally overwhelmed. The Mantis elites took out the missile launcher, and the rest was really easy. I probably could have won it using just either the marines or the burst lasers, so doing both resulted in some overkill.
Add in that this ship earned me the Mantis B, and I'm pretty happy with how that game went. The only thing that could've made it better was if I'd found a way to get the Slug Cruiser in the same game.
And yes, it was on Easy, so I know that it's not much of an accomplishment in the grand scheme of things -- but I figured a strong ship can stand on its own merits, even if I had a few handicaps in getting it.