tec is not bad prior to 1.1 patch. advent is just rigged.

advent have insane shields....

and advent carriers have massive passive aoe damage bonuses.

The problem in v1.05 is that TEC just aren't good late game.  As others have mentioned, the Advent fleets are well supported by their capital ships while the TEC capital ships are more "direct".  Anyway, you can still win using TEC, you just need to think harder.  In v1.1, TEC will be much better, especially since carriers will play a bigger role and the Kol has a pretty awesome flak burst ability.

That's what's I said.

I think you should always get the Battleship  as your first cap and pump out the colbalt like mad man, then Lrm or anti-strike  in the beginning.  Then turtle till trade ports.  I just don't like to fight the illums, I don't like the odds till I go carrier.   Advent can't match your Lrm production speed, you should always win that race.

TEC has better planet upgrades, and and you just can't beat TEC's trade ports with culture, b/c of the other upgrades.  Besides, culture can be beat without the fleet, you have to fight the "turtle" on his own turf to take out the trade ports. 

But as long as TEC has the best heavy cruiser with auto cannon weapons, you don't want to touch that fleet in late game.  

And oh, the novalith cannon is a GG bringer, not much to argue there.

Its true that Advent have superior shields. Its also true they have fragile ships. Bypassing the shields (phase missiles for an example) will make them die quickly.

Whilst it is true there are some area energy weapon enhancers (Mothership malice, Halycon energy weapon aura) go extremely well with those Illuminators the focus shifted somewhat from LRF (long range frigate) warfare twoards strikecraft (fighters/bombers).

And Tec has the Marzada. Behold its terror! Not only is it featuring the barrage of area death (its not enhancing damage of the fleet per se, its more taking down fleets by itself) its also a the best planet killer in the game. I see little difference between enhancing energy weapons of LRF fleets and dealing AOE (area of effect) of death, save that the first needs a fleet and the latter can accomplish it alone. Of course even a Marzada will be shot down alone, so you need kinda a fleet also (albeit early in the game you will ANNIHILATE colonies with a single Marzada).

Its different but i do not see severe advantages or disadvantages for one side, except one: the Marzada completely eliminates the need for planet killing abilities. Just one is enough to kill a planet in no time. Thats a slight advantage for TEC.

If you compare Guardians to Hoshikos the Guardian is the better craft, because of their "push" ability. But Hoshikos repair even near dead capital ships in no time, the Guardian shield extention is a little different, keeps large amount of craft better protected but will not prevent a capital kill as good as Hoschikos.

This is only true for the beta patch however, without it Marzada will not be able to perform missile barrages accordingly and Guardians and Subverters are even more powerful (and can be bug abused).

So yeah, TEC is weak without the beta patch. Not unplayable but you will fight under some disadvantage (RA *shudder*). Get the patch. Seriously.

It's a cross between Mazda and Marza.

A Marza is the only ship in the game that can single-handedly wipe out the pirate base. I've wiped almost complete enemy fleets. Too sweet to see your outnumbered, kick off MB, and twenty seconds later see most of the enemy fleet dissolve. First time I used it in a LAN game, the guy across the romm was all "WTF !!" . haha !

Missile Barrage ROCKS.