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I am wondering what is an effective stratagey against the Illuminator vessels?
I always seem to get pounded by Illuminator vessels mid-game and cant find a good stratagey aganst them.The AI didnt use any illum vessles so i wasnt quite prepared for how people use them in multiplayer, any suggestions?
If we are talking about the latest version 1.15 vanilla or 1.01/1.02 Entrenchment then you need carriers with fighters.
What race do you play?
usually tec but i also try and play vasari.
and yes we are talking about the latest version of thingsm 
Assuming he's just throwing illums at you (and nothing else), counter with the following:
fighters
scouts
heavy cruisers
lrm/assailants
Vasari have an easy strategy for any advent fleet. Research max phase missiles and then send as many phase missile units (including strikecraft) in the direction of their fleet as possible. Problem solved. 
For TEC, its alot harder. I wouldn't expect to win 1 on 1, just make sure your econ is better then theirs and use numbers to your advantage.
Well as Vasari the best counter you have to illum spam is the Evacuator. Get the egg and start pumping points in to Nano-Dissasembler. Micro this ability to hit each Illum, target a fresh one that has full shield and hull, if he doesn't heal it it's already dead. Do this every time the CD is up.
Carriers are tier 4 for Vasari so get Assailents out early, if he is rushing you get a repair bay up on the planets you will be fighting, it will give you the edge. Assailents+Eggs nanos+repair bay defending is a million times better than illum spam.
Don't know about TEC, I don't play them.
Edit: When you get Carriers make sure you have several techs in phase missles too, illums will not be a major issue by then.
3 things.
1) illuminators are often in the company of a Halcyon carrier cap ship. its aura is extremely potent for the illuminators. considering killing the Halcyon as quickly as possible before you deal with the illums.
2) by damage type the most effective attacks against them come from Fighter Squadrons. Scouts do the same type of damage but you have to be kind of desperate to spam scouts to counter as they'll be totally useless after you beat the Illuminators.
3) illuminators can fire 3 shots at once if they're in the middle of your fleet (they have side-firing beams as well as one in the front). you obviously do not want to let your opponent position his illuminators in the center of your fleet or else you'll take 3 times as much damage as you would normally. maneuver your forces to avoid this, try to keep a tight formation and stay off to one side of the illums.
TEC get percheron carriers at 3rd tier and their fighters are a good answer to illums. The problem really comes when he gets drone hosts along with those illums. Trying to win with fighter squads isn't effective then, as Advent squads outfight what the TEC and Vasari can field. I still haven't come up with a good counter to that lot.
Carrier based fighters are the hard counter -- they tear Illums apart. If the Advent player has enough military to counter your fighters AND overwhelm you with Illuminators, then they are just outplaying you.
Assailents....Sentinels....
yeah you are right
True, drone hosts are a bit heavy on the fleet cap.
and yet slightly more efficient per squadron than TEC or Vasari carriers. Percheron and Lasuraks pay 14 logistics for 2 squads, Aerias pay 20 for 3. just a hair better than the 7 logistics per squadron the other guys pay.
And yet 1 level 3 flak burst from the Kol lurking in your fleet and all those fighter drones go splat if you execute it correctly
Depends when you get hit. I am best with advent imo but i'm really enjoying Vasari. That being said...as advent I always get carriers up ASAP as most people opt for missle frigs at the start. Once I have the number of carriers I feel comfortable with I begin building illums. Control the skies and you will iwn 99% of the time. I also put some flak in there to ensure the air is mine.
As Vasari, the best way to counter would be to match carriers with advent and have some flak and adjust accordingly....If you are up against say 7 carriers, 15 illums 8 flak and 4 guardians I would probobly use this fleet.
10 carriers, 8 flak, 4-5 overseers and either 15 assailants or tech to HC's if possible and pick up 7-8. Now I'm not sure how close this is resource to resource but I would start my fight with killing his illums with my fighters (my flak will kill his fighters eventually and vice versa so I want to get some use out of my fighters before that time. I would say my fighters would kill at least half his illums. I would keep my assailants in a different grav well until some of his fighters were down as well. Obviously if you can have a larger flet than him it would be ideal but a balanced advent fleet is a tough nut to crack.
My end game advent fleet usually consists of 7-10 carriers, 5-7 guardians, Mothership and Radiance (especially against TEC's Marza) 10-15 illums, 10-15 destra's and 3-5 subjugators, 6-10 flak and 10-15 disciples with the anti-matter stealing ability to take down carriers. All of this depends on your opponents fleet though....if he has spammed missle frigs I wouldnt build a single disciple until those are killed and no longer a threat...I hate wasting resources and I play my games as if it's a battle of attrition. Build your fleets to counter the enemty....if it's balanced, go for his greatest weakness (a lot of the time that would be heavy cruisers as they work well against everything).
Try to get both levels of the third level shield and armor techs if you're TEC. Advent can get their shields strong with just two military research bases which can be nasty with illum spam.
last time i played advent i built a lot of destra's, and one of my allies said "stop building destra's. they are useless" 
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