I just tried taking on a VN Homeworld....
Gotterdammerung! That place is ridiculous! Well, the first attack with a single dreadnought was doomed to fail anyway, but it allowed me to see that a single ship is going to be very vulnerable regardless of anything. So, I tried the inverse - an Armada CnC (with a bonus, adding up to 62 points I think), and a metric crapload (30, to be precise) of Emitter-armed destroyers. The idea was that the small fry distract the saucers while the CnC guns down the big hulk nearby. For what it was worth, it worked - the VN drones had no chance against a massive swarm of tiny angry thundergods that spread destruction everywhere. A few torpedo blasts later, the hulk went down, the swarm (mine for a change) eventually ripped up the saucers, and... happily went sideways. Turns out there's a whole set of these things! While the CnC was busy navigating the asteroid field, the swarm was massacred, and then the CnC sank as well. Damn. I guess the tactic works, I just need even more destroyers, and at least some weapon variety on them (mass drivers would work).
Also, can anybody offer a strategy against a system killer? I suspect it's killable, but a concentrated attack of six dreadnoughts and a few cruisers barely scratched it (though not seeing HP doesn't help).