My new impressions:
Terrans - If I were to pick terran, I would go for a BS fleet. The DE fleet seems useless, only capable of hitting cathaar without risking some hefty losses and even so, is not particularly difficult to stop. Gryphons, Rogues, Fireblades are all effective defence. The BS fleet is harder to stop, and can hit all of the other races if required.
My fleet would consist mostly of a beefy BS fleet, with a handful of pegs and gryphons for defensive purposes. I would buy a few harpies to ensure that tiny zik FI fleets couldn't hit me, but for anti FR I'm not too sure. I would probably go the CO route with phoenix and drakes for defence purposes. With enough support, large terrans will be difficult to damage.
Cathaar - I would not be inclined to play cathaar. Ter DE, Ter BS, cath FR, cath CR, xand CO and Zik FI can all hit caths. BS, CR, CO and FI with impunity. I think that on paper the FI/FR/DE fleet does look quite tempting, for hitting terrans, ziks and xands; but such extensive comboing definitely has its downside as it opens up more useful defence ships. And without spiders, the pulsar, a ship which is a 0-loss frigate killer with little need to accompany an attack fleet (thieves are the only zik frigs, so lack flak and, so I wouldn't expect to see too many) would be able to ruin the round for frigates. The CR look more efficient in their ability to hit terrans (kind of), xands and caths, but again, there is a nasty 0-loss defence ship which has no need to accompany attack fleets - the Clipper. I'm not so keen on the cathaar's chances due to its requirement to extensively combo or risk easy coverage, whilst caths are easy to roid.
Xandathrii - I would go for a corvette fleet if I were to play xandathrii. Frigates
can hit terrans and ziks, but the pulsar is a wonderful ship for massacring frigs. So long as DCs make good use of them, frigates should not be such a huge problem. CO can hit caths and ziks (with some pulsar escort) and are reasonably difficult to stop. With the sheer speed of the CO fleet, xands should be able to do well, as in previous rounds, FI have overwhelmed efficient sentinels in order to steal roids, so the phoenix shouldn't be such a huge problem. Overall though, I'm not too keen on xands due to the ease with which FR can be stopped and the lack of targets for their CO fleet (As I said, I feel with these stats, caths will generally lack in value). Cath CR are also nasty to xands and, as a xand, I would expect to be the primary target for hostile caths.
Ziks - I quite like. I would probably aim for the largest possible FI fleet and use it to overwhelm terrans, caths and xands. Sentinels and cutlass should be important attack ships and so I would expect to see them out unable to defend for the majority of the time. I'd ignore DE for attack purposes, they're easy to stop with fireblades or gryphons, but I would build corsairs. Cruisers would be my next priority, and I would hope to be able to get my hands on some nice frigates this way, and to stop cruiser fleets easily. Finally, I would pack up a reasonable number of rogues to ensure my own safety against ter DE.
Currently, I feel that the two strongest attack fleets are terran BS and zik FI. Both are very difficult to stop, and both have plenty of targets. Not only this, but they are both quite difficult to roid compared to caths (or even xands). Ziks in particular should become very powerful if they manage to steal some sentinels (Would have to build thieves with this) or tzens and therefore become immune to xand CO. I would probably pick zikonian atm, for the first time ever!
Not sure what my suggestions would be, but hope my critique helps somewhat.
