Ok, you guys are all missing the point of this game.

Sins of a Solar Empire is a 4XRTS! 4X!

You need to take advantage of Advent's superior culture abilities to influence your foes into submission.

So start with exploring a few nearby planets, settle them, and build defensive structures in case of a rush. Then build income generating buildings and culture buildings. Eventually, you will see the culture line extend through the jump lanes, and it will force your opponent's planet to revolt.

If you don't use the culture aspect, you are not playing the advent to the fullest. Even if you don't force a rebellion, the mere threat of the culture offensive adds strategic depth and force your opponent to come up with a counter strategy.

I still don't see the spread out damage from illuminators. I'm going to experiment a bit to verify what you're saying. I always noticed a great increase in damage once i change from disciples to illums, and there was no spread damage from 3 beams.

Your four strats are for different games, there is no fixed strat that will work. Once your second temple is built, you should have scouted the enemy on a small map and decide which way to go in that moment. Yeah i know you have already built the cap ship at that point. Still if you go with disciples/drone hosts, the halcyon helps adding more dps. By the time you have to retreat it, you should gain numerical superiority in the frigate count.

Nexusil, culture is more late game, and usually the culture offensive doesn't work against semi decent players. That means, they will put one or two culture structures on their borders, and if you spend half your income and most logistics slots on culture, he will spend it on ships and economy and simply kill your temples of communion, along with your planets.

Edit : Just tested a single illuminator firing at an enemy ship, full nominal damage - mitigation was done. So i'll stick with illums. They don't suck.

What size maps are you playing 2v2s on HuntingX?

I guess my thought is, after reading your strats and watching a couple 1v1 videos that you've posted, that you've shoe horned the classic small map rts setup/game style onto this game. Not that there is anything wrong with that, as it is obviously a potential play style, but 1 of many that are available. I'm assuming that some of the poor responses are due to not fully understanding the pre-determined limits you are placing on your games (while some responders are just not that bright, tbh).

Unfortunately, I really have nothing to add strategy-wise, as I haven't had a chance to play that much, and in general like the idea of huge maps, multiple players in unlocked alliances, and relative chaos over setting up closed environment type matches that are readily available and specifically balanced for in other games.