TEC ships also get more percentage hp on upgrades in the beginning (25% for 2 weapon labs), they also get better armor ups early on as well (only 3 weapon labs) if u upgrade them early on TEC light cruisers become better that Vasari skirmishers let alone the Advent, and reasonably cheap as well.  TEC can also biuld a trade network faster than the others, and coupled with early cheap upgrades to metal mining u can spam out a ton of tough light cruisers in the early game. the TEC also get more armor when fully upgraded than the other factions which helps the orbital defences, which dont have shilds and since thier ships tend to have more hp than shilds it count even more.

the Kol BS the TEC have is pretty much designed to fight the vasari since its adv. shilds give it more resitance to phase missles. and the dunov is death on strikecraft with its magnetism ability which makes it awsome vs the advent with its swarms of fighters.

and lastly since ur wanna fight as TEC a killer combo is a lvl 6 dunov with the flux field ability partnered with 2 kols with gauss cannons. flux field makes the cost of a gauss shot only 25 a-m, and the gauss has a reload of only 6 seconds so each kol can get 10 shots b4 the flux runs out, thats enough to massacre a capital ship, or tear a starbase a new one.

hope this is helpful

also the tec's ultimate weapon kills planet populations with EACH shot

harpo

Thanks

Helped Me A Lot

With TEC, you can lose your ENTIRE fleet at the front lines and still bounce back with a deadlocking  force before the enemy has a chance to penetrate  your inner worlds (err.. minus high level caps and skill being equal..) . Thats a pretty big advantage . That is, if you got your economy going, as you should do with TEC...

In other words, infinite reinforcements... pretty much, don't worry even if you lose 5 ships to other race's one, becuase you should be able to swallow producing 10 for 1 . (Numbers have no basis, just saying..)

the TEC faction should leverage economic advantages to win most of the time. 

they can more quickly and easily develop trade ports than the other factions, which will result in a substantial credit income advantage throughout most of the game. the credit advantage should be leveraged into military advantage by buying logistics upgrades sooner than your opponents. yes, this means that TEC players win most battles through superior numbers rather than by having the most powerful ships. 

in the late game the high end economic techs like Pervasive Economy, Development Mandate, and Industrial Juggernaught can make it almost impossible to keep up with a fully developed TEC economy. you can just crank out an endless stream of ships from your factories and swamp your opponent with them. 

the one thing you'll really have to watch out for is an opponent who is adept at hit and run tactics and can negate your economy advantage by taking out trade ports and other economic structures at planets that you may not have adequate defenses for. you can be crippled early if your investment in trade is destroyed before it pays adequate dividends. 

too true. 

sometimes you just cant get all your trade ports in safe locations though. the whole network becomes more valuable if the longest route is longer and those endpoint systems can be pretty easy to pick off on certain maps. trade ports are just like that, some maps really let you abuse them but they can be very risky on other maps even if you've scouted quite well.

i once held a planet against a very large hard AI fleet with nothing but the original receipe Sins TEC defenses and a couple of LFs, LRFs and Kodiaks... and by a couple i actually mean 2 or each (fleet was maxed out) i was fighting 4-5 systems away against another hard enemy who kept throwing his fleet at me and couldnt spare a fleet to defend.

after like 10 mins of minimal losses (i dont know how though, he had all the time in the world) he simply backed out...

so this thing of getting cremated... idn what you are talking about... i honestly find it hard to loose against hard and even insane opponents... unless its like me vs 4 hard-insanes and its my full fleet versus all of their full fleets... that sucks... sometimes you just cant beat numbers...

but yeah, like everyone else says, its not the military research that saves the TEC, its their enormous economic power... everything turned to military production will make any civlisation a powerful military adversary... look at russia and germany during their respective golden ages... unfortunately after a while their economies collapsed and yeah... but thats it, numbers, tech and good economy, thats TEC's advantage.

on the other hand, i rushed a small Vasari fleet through enemy lines, captured a planet right on my enemies flanks, fortified, built a phase stabiliser, and flew a large fleet behind his lines, then pincered the bastard... so... TEC cant do THAT... but i still prefer them anyday... something to do with having pride in my species...