Help against illuminators

from Sins Forums
I don't know what to do. I'm a Starcraft kinda guy.

My brother and our friend play semi-daily in SOASE.
Every time, they use Advent + Illuminators.

They build as many Illuminators as possible + one captain ship. I'm always TEC because I <3 the Novalith Cannon.

I read in here that Javelins are good, so I tried them, but even in a 2 to 1 outnumbering, the Illuminators wipe the floor with them. I googled that Kodiaks were good, so I built a fleet of 50 of them, but he had 100 illuminators and one captian ship (don't know what it is), and I barely destroyed any, and people said they can rip through illuminators. Is it good to micromanage them or let them do their thing, what tactic should I use if they have the tech tree fully researched?

I have no idea what to do. I'm about to give up on TEC and become an Illuminator spammer. -_-
strategy
3,633 views 11 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
sounds like he might be beating you in other ways as well. You should look into how your economy compares with his.

Flaks do okay against Illuminators... if he's got JUST illuminators and you're feeling gutsy you might trying swarming scouts... but you will need at least twice as many scouts than he has illiminators for this to be effective.
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
Only thing I can think of is just spamming cap ships or making 10-20 heavy cruisers and lots of carriers to spam some fighters and bombers on him. Make sure you have equal or better research than him. Last resort is the scouts thing posted above but if he has a second fleet your done.
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Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
If you're just die-hard TEC, your best bet is gonna be fighter carriers. Beyond that, or once they start fortifying it with Halycon carriers/defense vessels, all you can really do is go for Kodiaks and Marzha Dreads for the rad bomb. Heavy cruisers do 150% damage to light(Illum) armor, and only take 75% from Long Range(Illum) weapons.

Really, if you want to stop the Illum spam for good, start going Vasari and build fleets based off Subverters, Overseers, and the first Cap ship on the factory list. (that has Explosive Nanites at 6) Research the stun for Subverters and the direct heal for Overseers. (if you have to, I forgot what comes stock for them) Bolster it with some fighters or heavy cruisers to seal the deal. That combo will absolutely shut down pure Illuminators.
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
If he really has Illuminators only then carrier ships with fighters (not bombers) are a great counter. You just have to run them away from the Illuminators so that the carrier doesn't get hit while the fighters do damage.

Problem with that is that fighters are countered by flak very, very hard so if he decides to bring flak you are totally screwed. Then the carriers are best used to do hit'n'run attacks on his planets while you try to kill his fleet in some other way.

Also quite good is a combination of heavy cruisers (Kodiaks for TEC) with a few support cruisers. It doesn't counter Illuminators as hard as carriers but they also can't be rendered completely useless with a minor investment from your enemy (like he can do to your strike craft with a few flak).
Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top
Sorry to post twice, can't find a way to edit the old one for some reason. Flaks -do- perform pretty well against Illums too, as mentioned above. 75% damage to light armor, as opposed to 25% to other non strikecraft types. Just try to keep moving around behind them, the flaks have a 360 degree firing range. It's about as risky as the Scout Swarm idea, though, as there's very little else a giant zerg of flaks is good for. Repulsion also owns this strat.

edit: In all of these cases other than possibly fighter zerg, you should be focus firing with whatever counter fleet you have. If you aren't, you'll get mowed down. That sounds like what's happening with your cruisers, as 50 HC should fare well against 100 Illums. They should be using 1 volley per Illum and fire much more quickly.
Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top
Really, if you want to stop the Illum spam for good, start going Vasari and build fleets based off Subverters, Overseers, and the first Cap ship on the factory list. (that has Explosive Nanites at 6) Research the stun for Subverters and the direct heal for Overseers. (if you have to, I forgot what comes stock for them) Bolster it with some fighters or heavy cruisers to seal the deal. That combo will absolutely shut down pure Illuminators.
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???

i play Vasari

-do u confirm Sub&Over eat those illum ??? or is it just theory ?
cauz i did several try with mixed fleet and it went badly, but dont know what was wrong (but very few support ships, i've observed they quite disapears first when you go trought several battles)

the only once i won, was with 3time bigger fleet (long game, got better eco et RA)


-second problem is that u need some 6 weapon lab to reach these toys.. so early game (small/medium map) will not allow you to Sub&Over


Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top
I always dominate economically and research wise.

I just came to report that the Perchion Carrier worked, though I had to have more.
Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top
I always dominate economically and research wise.I just came to report that the Perchion Carrier worked, though I had to have more.
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Javalis + Hashikos + Kol + Better Economy = Easy win on an illum spam.

Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top
What the heck..first it was LRM spam, now it is the Advent's turn. When do i hear the equivalen of with their same version of missile boat.
Reply #10 from Sins Forums Top
Well First of all illuminators have got to be the strongest unit there is if u upgrade them. So they are pretty much unstopable because one time i was vasari, people say vasari are strongest in military......NOT, I lost over 250 cruisers and frigates, Also 13 capital ships in minutes. Also i had every thing upgraded. this guy had well over 300 iluminators not including those advent capital ships that deplete your hull points with that special. I forget what its called...So the developers really need to make advent less powerfull.  :) 
Reply #11 from Sins Forums Top
What the heck..first it was LRM spam, now it is the Advent's turn. When do i hear the equivalen of with their same version of missile boat.
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actually its vasari RA rush now ^^
advent has been nurfed in 1.4 anyway but any no/low skilled vasari can turn a easy win on him to a 3-4h game with just building 3 phasegates on every planet..
to beat RA takes just too long on a bigger map!
i've stopped playing online cuz of this lame "i stay in game aslong as it takes even if i've been beaten allready just to waste the time of my opponent and maybe he leaves because he gets frustratet cleaning my 10 planetes full of ships every time..." tactic