While playing independent i was able to get almost any big ship in the military store. Only the Legion did not appear in their store. But luckily i found one in the outer star systems. Being independent pays off quite well because i can trade with anyone. Ok, i made the pirates, luddic path and especially the remnants to vengeful enemies.
My Flagship is a odyssey. I have stacked my skills on fighting and defense abilities and used almost every OP on maxing dissipation, shield and speed attribute to absolute maximum. It has on the left side one tachyon lance and one high intensity laser and it got 2 swadrons of sparks or lux. Nothing more. Yes, just these 2 weapons and 2 squadrons.
While using the forward and backward drive and frequent venting for 0 flux (even while close to enemys) it is way better than it ever was while equipped with more or other weapons. In this configuration it can fight alone against most pirate fleets even when they come with allies (the exceptions are only some of the larger Bounty fleets (most of the 200.000+ Cr. fleets during later game), which may require retreats or are even too hard for a single odyssey). Frequent venting and downing shields is a must in bigger fights and despite the sometimes occuring heavy hits its actually not that dangerous!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N85wHGty3I4The weakness are too many strong shielded ships. In this case i use my odyssey as assist for 2-3 officer flown dominators. With these i farm the fleets spawned in the system of the maximum battlestation for drone fighter LPCs, Cores and Mod Specs. I use larger fleets with 6+ dominators and 3 odysseys for replacement (while replenishing CR and repairing) and some other capital ships to be able to deploy my ships. I don't attack the station itself. It pays much more off to farm the fleets.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1cUM4YwC_YThe single odyssey can handle up to 6 squadrons of fighters without taking noticable damage to the shields when the weapons are used as point defense. This is one of the reasons why a high intensity laser is a "must" and not just a "budget" weapon on this ship.
Here i show my dominator and odyssey fleet fighting a high tech fleet. You can see clearly the limits of this odyssey build. Strong shields are a problem. I could install plasma cannons but the problem would just become another. In this case fighters and small ships would be the weakness. Combined weapons require too much flux (or OP which would save flux in different ways) so that larger fleets and continously incoming fire would become the new weakness. Thats why this is my favorite build.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q08LuJ4EWbA