Download the mod "Silveressa's Empowerment." The number of strike craft per carrier, especially for the Advent, have been improved. Distant Stars increases them also, but changes a lot more.

I too agree with Jotanhorn. TEC carrier abilities are vastly underrated. Heavy Fighters + Targeting Uplink + Designate Target = Bad news . Heavy Manufacturing + Dunov's magnetize ability = More bad news.

So you build 3 Sovas and 6 Percherons, scaling with increases in fleet supply? Well,

"The TEC makes up for in quantity what you don't get in heavy damage"

is not true for carriers. All the carrier cruisers take up 8 supply points, whether the Aeria or the Percheron or the Lasurak. If anything, the Vasari would have numerical superiority in carriers with their Phasic Transmissions tech. The Advent carrier cruiser is also the cheapest, so it doesn't matter if the TEC has a stronger economy since the Percheron costs more. The Lasurak is even pricier, but the Vasari's superior resource economy kind of makes up for the big metal and big crystal price tag.

And all capital ships have the same price and supply requirement, so Sovas can be neutralized by Skirantras or Halcyons for no further price. So you only have a numerical advantage if the enemy doesn't build carriers or uses them really sparsely.

The Advent also have a better chance of neutralizing TEC shipbuilding instead of vice versa - their Hangars are Tier 1 tech and are stronger than those of the TEC, and their Aerias are Tier 2 ships and are comparatively cheap, while Percherons are Tier 3, and not that cheap.

And in later game(Tier 6+), not even an equal number of Level 10 Sovas with Heavy Fighters + Percherons with Bombers can beat an equal number of Level 10 Skirantras with Fighters + Lasuraks with Bombers. Vasari strike craft come alive at Tier 6 with their damage boosts, armor boosts and speed boosts maxing out, and their hull and repair rate having hit the top on Tier 4 and their shield negation maxing out at Tier 5.

Rapid Manufacturing cannot be kept up for long enough against Repair Cloud with it's big cool-down(2 minutes vs. 12 seconds), and it takes <5 seconds in the Cloud to fully restore a Vasari Fighter to full health(max is 105 hp) from any condition. It won't be that easy to crack them with both sides microing their carriers' abilities.



Wow, that sounds like a significant degree of dependence for TEC strike craft on their capital ships. Not like their rivals can't counter that with support abilities of their own.

Repair Cloud + Microphasing Aura + Defeat Shields = Bad news. Jam Weapons + Distort Gravity = More bad news. Distort Grav + Microphasing Aura, both at Level 3, would make for some extremely rapid strike craft. Jam Weapons also has a range of 3500, and TEC Bombers can't match that with any technology or Targeting Uplink or whatever factored in.

Concentration Aura + Adept Drone Anima + Amplify Energy Aura = Bad news. Telekinetic Push + Anima Tempest = More bad news. Concentration Aura also operates through host carriers, so it has unlimited range for their strike craft.

Well sky, my "Main fleet" isn't just the only fleet I have. I do have a secondary flotilla of kodiaks backed up by LRMS and 1 sova full of fighters for Anti-bomber/anti-LRM support. That fleet is full of the support ships such as my command cruisers and repiar ships. The "Main fleet" is for heavy assault/world trashing. My secondary Flotilla is really my ship-to-ship fighting fleet.

clearly the advent. superior numbers and decent build times and damage cynch it for them. not to mention many of their abilities support fighters.

You are correct in that TEC fighters are reliant upon their Cap ships to enhance their performance, but the enhancements come at zero research and antimatter cost. Just by having an Akkan and a Sova in your fleet you get nice fighter perks. TEC bombers with ERM research (expensive) get a total of 32% longer range when used in conjunction with TU. Now, I don't know if that puts it outside of the Jam weapons envelope, but it can only be helpful in that matter. Research ballistics and missle tech and add another 30% of damage to fighters and bombers. The 15% chance to hit comes in handy as well when opposing fighter/bomber conflicts occur.

I just got the urge to explain myself and how I fight a little more.



I build what i call an "escort strike force" and a full fleet. (this comes from my old days playing wing commander, loved that game)

Basically, you build a total of 3 sovas and 6 perchons in the escort strike force. 2 of the sovas build nothing but bombers and the other has nothing but fighters. The pecherons are also nothing but fighters. The TEC's carriers have a total of 7 squads and so that gives you a total of 14 bomber wings and 13 fighter wings. The TEC makes up for in quantity what you don't get in heavy damage, as you can send 2 targets on opposite sides of the gravity well a very fancy present that they won't appreciate. TEC strike craft are ok at the ship to ship fight, but they excell in crippling your opponent's shipbuilding capability especially when you keep the motherships outside the gravity well so they can jump at anytime.

The escort strike force is a highly mobile hit and run task force. This force is to just protect the carriers while the strike craft take out whatever industrial targets they can before the opponent can call in a relief force.

The "main fleet" is a full fleet carrier battle group. It is not by itself. As i mention above, if i need to fight a full fleet engagement, I take along my secondary flotilla along with said "Main Fleet" and make the "Main Battle Fleet".


The "main fleet" is a long range assault force consisting of 3 sovas, 2 marzas, 2 kol battleships, 6 LRMs, 4 flak, and 1 each of the command and repair cruisers. I use this fleet to stay right at the edge of the gravity well, or pretty close and pound on my targets from a distance. The kols have a nice anti-fighter ability so i keep them close in to the carriers and have the flak frigates as outer perimeter defense. Again, i build 2 carriers worth of bomber and 1 of fighters, that gives me 14 bombers and 7 fighters. I then use the marza's ship to ship missile banks, agumented by the missiles from the carrier's abilities, and the LRMs to pound on bunched up targets.

And for the heck of it, i will clarify my secondary flotilla:

Kol Battleship x 2
Dunov Battlecruiser x 2
Akkan Battlecruiser x 1
Kodiak Heavy Cruiser x 10
Cielo Command Cruiser x 4
Hashika Robotics Cruiser x 4
Garda Flak Frigate x 4
Javelis LRM Frigate x 14
Cobalt Light Frigate x 20

So, for those of you who are confused about my force composition,my "Main Battle Fleet" is a grand total of:

Sova Fleet Carrier x 3 (14 Bomber and 7 Fighter wings)
Marza Dreadnought x 2 (2 Fighter wings)
Kol Battleship x 4 (8 Fighter wings)
Akkan Battlecruiser x 1 (3 Fighter wings)
Kodiak Heavy Cruiser x 10
Cielo Command Cruiser x 5
Hashika Robotics Cruier x 5
Garda Flak Frigate x 8
Javelis LRM Frigate x 20
Cobalt Light Frigate x 20
Total Strike Craft in fleet: 14 Bomber and 20 Fighter Wings)

So to those of you who keep thinking that Capital Ships are to be used in small numbers, I am of the opinion that they are CAPITAL SHIPS and are to be used enmasse with your frigates and cruisers acting as a supporting meat wall.

Edit: I just got done playing a LAN Game, where you can get a total of 16 caps and I found a little better force composition for both my "Escort Strike Force" and "Main Battle Fleet"

I went with 4 Sovas in the Escort Strike Force backed up by 8 Flak Frigates for Anti-fighter support. This Group worked a lot better for quick getaways and for more overall damage, as I had a total of 10 Fighter Wings, and 18 Bomber wings that could be split into 2 groups and still go to town on any infrastructure target i set.

The "Main Battle Fleet" was a lot more efficient with the following force

Sova Fleet Carrier x 4 (21 Bomber and 7 Fighter wings)
Marza Dreadnought x 2 (2 Fighter wings)
Kol Battleship x 2 (4 Fighter wings)
Akkan Battlecruiser x 1 (3 Fighter wings)
Dunov Battlecruiser x 3 (9 Fighter wings)
Kodiak Heavy Cruiser x 10
Cielo Command Cruiser x 5
Hashika Robotics Cruier x 5
Garda Flak Frigate x 8
Javelis LRM Frigate x 20
Cobalt Light Frigate x 20
Total Strike Craft in fleet: 21 Bomber and 25 Fighter Wings)

The "Main Battle Fleet" Was able to sit in 1 spot and force the enemy to come to me in order to fight, my buddy went in with a heavy group of 30 Kodiaks, 40 LRMS, 50-60 Cobalts, and 4 cap ships: 1 Akkan and 3 Kol Battleships. I was able to tear this fleet to shreds and my losses were 2 Cap ships and all of my Cobalts and Javelis frigates. That was it...

I am going to make it just 1 Kol Battleship in the future and add another Dunov. My style of play is more towards Long range strike craft dueling, rather than up close and personal. I am also going to add some Pecheron light carriers into the main fleet to beef up the bomber wings in the next game.

I haven't played much multiplayer, but..

If your playing an AI, the Advent are better. The AI tends to spam Planet Attack ships while you are on the offensive. Aria Drone Host are *cheap* fighter hangars, and while more expensive in terms of total resources (3 Drone Hosts > A single Hangar), the best part is that they are mobile. If your planet goes down, or is going down, you can retreat until the calvalry arrives. You can also often float a squadron of about 6 Drone Hosts in a centralized location (Plasma Storms are my fav.) so they can quickly reach an assaulted planet when needed. You can think of them as decentralized fighter hangars- if you have a single planet that links to three or four other planets, you can effectively build one big hangar for all of them at less cost (consider buying three hangars for each planet (15 if it links to four) versus buying 9 drone hosts).

Also, you while you cant tell the fighters to fire on a specific fighter, you sure can tell all of your fighters to focus fire on a specific vehicle. Especially with Phase Jump Inhibitors, many times the Computer AI will bolt as soon as they realize you have a superior force. Massive numbers of Advent fighters can destroy quite a few of their ships before they get a chance to retreat because your other ships probably wont get to their fleeing ships in time to do enough damage-even Destra Crusaders. I would suspect this would also be true in Multiplayer to some extent, but players may just decide to stick it and "gun it out", taking as much of your fleet down as they can.

Also, while there arent many upgrades for the Advent for their fighters, the laser upgrades are pretty cheap, and I often find that when I'm playing Advent, I am *berzerking* for Destra Crusaders (along with vital Harmony upgrades to extract Crystal and spread culture), because as another post said before in the "RA sucks thread" , Illuminators are the worst long-range frigate in the game, so I'm scrambling to get a decent warship in my arsenal. I usually don't even get Purge Vessels before I get Destra Crusaders. So I have a max tech level of 5, but I'm focusing my research on getting Drone Hosts, laser emitters, and hull research. Usually provides for a decent fleet.

That being said, later in the game with all their upgrades and many friends, Illuminators can pack a lethal punch-especially after they get their range upgrade.

The Advent are definately a defensive race. They gain power in their culture and their abilities to inflict "Attrition" on their enemies by taking resources or persuading them to kill one another or punishing them for destroying their trade ships. I usually think about it this way: TEC grabs whatever it can, Vasari gets the big prizes, and the Advent ends up colonizing a lot of asteroids. But the extra Technical slots , especially in the end game, can be crucial, especially when you are using Dead Asteroids as choke points (like in Doppleganger).

The Vasari fighters are way beefier, and I would suspect that they are better in multiplayer because of the current metagame - but they are also a lot more expensive in terms of how much their crusaders cost, and when I have a Drone Host, he usually has a capital ship , many diciple body-bags, and a few crusaders/guardians as friends. Someone who is properly playing the Advent isn't always thinking "How do I get more resources", they are thinking "How do I take more resources away from my opponent?". That is pretty effective anti-Vasari.

I need to play the other races more though. I can't get over "OUR TIME FOR REVENGE HAS COME AT HAND" though. Awesome voice effect. I also need to play more multiplayer, but I work 2 jobs so...not a lot of time.

ANyway, good read, thanks for the posts guys.

TEC Bomber range w. ERM + Uplink bonuses = 3168 (132% of 2400)
Jam Weapons range = 3500



Build times? The Advent are the worst at build times.

Advent Fighter Squad = 144s
Advent Bomber Squad = 126s
Vasari Fighter Squad = 96s
Vasari Bomber Squad = 90s
TEC Fighter Squad = 120s
TEC Bomber Squad = 125s

They have superior numbers of unarmored paper-plane drones which individually deal the least damage, have no repair capability, and are the easiest to shoot down.