Alright, I have played this game quite a few times on the online version, and i am here to try to help some players counter some commonly appearing things in all sizes of maps.

For beginners a general start for all three strategies, although it is not strict and you can make your own adjustments:
As TEC:
1 archova scout frigate, send it to the other planets and find an asteroid, easily accessible
4 cobalt light frigates
1 Akkan Class battle cruiser with a Colonize ability point

Build on all of your resource fields
sell 100 metal at black market
buy 100 crystal at black market
build 2 military labs asap on homeworld
Colonize the nearest asteroid
Research Civilian infastructure on the nearest asteroid.

thats just merely basic for TEC

As Advent:
1 seeker vessel, same idea as the TEC scout frigate
3-4 Disciple vessels, its your choice
1 Prognetior mothership with a Colonize ability point

The way to go is much like the TEC way, except for the fact that you need three military labs for illuminators, so it is wise to build the third on your asteroid, because the logistics capacity upgrade is usually pretty steep.

As Vasari:
1 scout frigate (can't think of its name at the time)
3 Ravastra skirmishers (because they are so expensive)
It gets interesting for Vasari, you can do either 1 of 2 things: Get the Jarassul Evacuator capital ship for a colony upgrade, or you can get the Kortul Devastator with a colony ship.

First, build 1 military lab: research Kanrak Assailant and for beginners dont go too fancy if playing ai and make quite a few of these, as it is not worth drowning yourself with painful to remember unit combos
Sell 100 metal and build an Imperial lab as well, as these will be needed later on for colonizing volcanic and ice planets, and on your asteroid after you colonize it, build another, as this is one of the benefits of early game vasari, it does not take long to get Long Range Frigates.

Keep in mind on Larger maps you can go for the ultimate Vasari tech: Returning Armada, which will be explained in later updates to the thread.

Illuminator spam:
Yeah, you can do all fancy guardian/carrier stuff but the truth is if you're new to the game you might not be familliar with the tech tree, what numbers to have and what not, and that kind of fleet with pure fighters might work for illums, but you might forget that there is a cap ship mixed in there too.

So, you ask me? What can i do then? why i find it quite simple, its just as easy to get heavy cruisers as any race, whatever you prefer, although i would probably say you could get kodiaks as a TEC player the fastest and they eat up illums. First off, they have more hp, more damage, and more armour then illums, and with a fleet of 10, in combination with an akkan or a kol you can do damage to their illuminators, and with a little micromanagement, even more. So when you ask yourself, how do i counter illuminator spam? HC's.

Note, your cap ship should preferably have a fighter squad if an akkan.

also for you TEC players out there, do not overlook the benefit of trade ports, especially if on larger maps, it is crucial to make many of them if you want to succeed in the game, because late game TEC tech tree won't hold up if you have matched numbers so you must outproduce them. On larger maps with distance between enemies, start off slow militarily and build trade ports for the benefits later on. It should take no longer then 9 minutes until the trade port you paid for starts making you a profit. 9 minutes is not a long time and is well worth the wait.


Capital Ship Confusion

New players, it is important to learn about Capital ships, and the do's and do nots of these. Keep in mind as soon as the game starts the first thing you should do on ANY size map is build a capital ship factory, and then a capital ship, the first one you should build, or the "free" capital ship is mentioned earlier on.

Ok, a more in depth Capital ship guide for the other capital ships for all Races

TEC
1. Kol Battleship- the most combat geared of all of the TEC capital ships, personally one of my favorites, when my fleet gets larger, with 6-8 capital ships, you'll see atleast 4 of these in my normal fleet.
2. Akkan Class Battleship- A support ship that has some military ability and can colonize planets as well, for beginners, make this your choice for your first capital ship
3. Sova Carrier- Does not really need much explaining, i am sort of biased against capital ship carriers becuase i dont  think they match up to the other capital ships you can make, however it has a few interesting abilities, such as embargo.
4. Dunov Battlecruiser- One of the utility cruisers in the TEC fleet and is primarily a support cruiser with many helpful abilities, but most people won't be able to find a need for more than 1 of these.
5. Mazra Dreadnought- A very useful capital ship used for bombing enemy planets, with useful abilities for this, such and radiation bomb and raze planet.  It is also a very capable warship with long range assault abilities

Advent
1. Radiance Battlecruiser- Stocked with powerful weapons and geared towards combat, they are the primary assault ships of the Advent fleet, with a powerful ability at level 6, cleansing brilliance
2. Prognetior Mothership- A support ship with powerful a powerful plasma weapon, but it is used mainly for the colonization of planets, and should be made the first capital ship for beginners as Advent
3. Revelation Battlecruiser- This battleship looks very weird, but has interesting abilities which are very helpful, much like all of the Advent ships and serves as the most powerful planet bombardment ship in the Advent Arsenal
4. Halycon Carrier- While this is one of the more useful of the carriers, i still dislike them, but it has helpful squadron support abilities
5. Rapture Battlecruiser- A useful cruiser that has combat abilities, as well as useful abilities such as vengeance as well as its most powerful ability, domination, which takes over the other units.