Unit Usage and Balance Questions

Advent is my favorite factions, and I assure you, they are not nerfed. You've just got to use them right, which is really what SINS is all about.

1. Is that a new change? I remember building one next to my "culture gun" (can't remember the name) and it would restore its AM. Either ways, it can be very useful on very hot worlds where you have a fleet more often than not in orbit, as extra AM to a cap ship (especially mothership) and gaurdians greatly increases the survivability of your ships. Cluster some repair bays around it and keep your fleet close to those structures, and it will be difficult for the enemy to destroy your defending fleet. I also build one at one of my planets in the rear, where I'll park the cap ship with the clarvoyance ability so that it can have AM to constantly spy on my enemies.

2. Econ is the only thing I can think of as to how the advent is at a disadvantage. Their abilities are awesome, though you need to use them together for full effect. Their high shield strength + gaurdians + mothership = they should always win against TEC unless they have far superior numbers. Vasari phase missiles sort of ruin this strategy but its still worth pulling off unless they spam assaliants and SC. In entrenchment, their defenses are also good when you have synergy researched, and as always you have to learn to use their abilities together. I guess I don't know what you've heard, but post it and I or someone else will be glad to debunk it for you.

conventional wisdom (which is largely true in my opinion) is that from a military perspective the three factions are very closely balanced. the Advent do fine in the first 3 or 4 tiers of civilian research as well. the most noticeable place they are lacking is in tiers 5-8 of civilian research. Vasari and TEC get super research like Returning Armada or Pervasive Economy where the Advent have no comparably strong civilian technology. 

regarding military balance i think alot of people really enjoy the Advent style. its very effective, particularly rewarding for players with good micro-management skills. The illuminator is the best Long Range frigate if you're good at positioning them. Guardians are probably the best defensive support cruiser if you're good at using Repulsion. Advent squadrons are slightly better than other races squadrons (though slightly more vulnerable to Flak Burst from a Kol, but thats not a big issue really). 

i'd never say Advent is nerfed. i'd say that in the latest stages of the game they fail to compete with end-tier civilian research so the best strategy is to push military very heavily in the mid-game. call that a balance flaw if you want, but i don't see it that way. its just the way Advent is. 

So, your cap ships which  are primarily around for their abilities having nigh infinite AM in a fight to spam abilities rather than pick and choose what to do is useless

new to me

As everyone pointed out, Advent is very good for a player who likes to micro manage all the special abilities they get.  When I play them I rarely make more than 4 or 5 civic labs...and the benefit of this is that you can just focus on your military tree while other players are working on their civic tree.  Just build trade ports everywhere....the Advent economy does just fine as long as they build tradeports at some point.

Advent also has some of the best defensive options in Entrenchment.  Homing mines, shield upgrades for defensive structures, and a very nasty Starbase if you research all the tech upgrades for it.

The Antimatter Recharger recharges the AM reserves of ships, not structures. With Antimatter Multicasting researched, the amount of AM it recharges in total actually exceeds the amount of AM consumed by the Recharger.

Definitely maxing out reactor upgrades is a better investment than the recharger.  The problem with the recharger is that it costs a lot of resources to get all its upgrades, and you need lots of civilian labs.  Just not worth bringing out until later on.

Advent has only two real weaknesses.  The first is that their civilian tech tree is sparse after level 3, and their economy isn't as versatile as a result.  If you spam trade ports, they'll do just fine, but you don't have much option with regards to refineries or such.  Secondly, they're a little shield dependant so Vasari phase missiles can give them trouble.  Other than that, they're very solid and powerful.  You just have to be careful to micromanage them effectively.

About 40 or 50 games online under my belt with 2 different names and I have yet to see ANYONE use mines online period.