Since my last guide was a complete work of slop, I'm going to try again.  I've learned from the (harsh) criticism from many others, and I think I'm ready.  Hope this one isn't a complete dud like the last one.

1. Each of the three races has advantages and disadvantages that are easy to find early when you start playing.  The TEC has ships that are inexpensive,fairly strong, and they don't take up too much space. They've also got the best Heavy Cruisers that anyone could ask for.  Despite this, their frigates' armor, sheilds, and hull points are sort of pitiful.  Not the best empire for those who fear being blown to bits in an instant, as this empire can make your fear all the more real.

  The Vasari have ships with very strong hulls, and one of their capital ships can increase your fleet size.  However, their ships are almost twice as expensive, and they take up more fleet space, in my opinion, than is needed.  I mean, their light frigates take up 6 fleet capacity!  However, their main strength is in that of their missile-wielding ships.  With research, the Vasari's ships' phase missiles can bypass shields, making them all the more useful.

The Advent are true power hitters, having frigates that do considerably more damage than frigates than other empires.  Since their main power is also in their shields, they stay on the feild longer because of something called "shield mitigation", which is the best thing about shields.  However, the Advent's Illuminator vessels are sort of expensive, and you need 3 military lab structures to research them.

2.  There is sort of a combat triangle to these empires.  The TEC's huge numbers can obliterate over-expensive Vasari fleets.  Vasari missiles can go right through the shields of the Advent, crippling them greatly.  Finally, the Advent's hugely superior PsiTech can obliterate the weak hulls of the TEC's ships.  Use these strengths and weaknesses to your advantage.

3.  A balanced team is a superior team.  Don't spam Javelis frigates when your opponent may have heavy cruisers waiting for you at the planet next door.  Trust me, take it from someone who knows firsthand.

4.  However, OCCASIONAL spamming may be needed to take down a spammed fleet.  This tactic is something I call "stratespamming".  This form of spamming is when you make more of one ship than all other ships, but you still keep your fleet balanced.  Say that your opponent is spamming light frigates.  You may wanna make some more long-range frigates than usual, but not too many more, as your opponent may have another kind of ship waiting to take down that kind of ship.  A balanced fleet will take that strategy down in no time.

5.  It may be wise to put one kind of ship into one fleet, and another kind of ship into another fleet.  For instance, you can have a bomber fleet to take down planets, a long-range fleet for ridding a fleet of light frigates, and a fleet of light frigates to defend against various cruisers.  This tactic plays to your strengths and their weaknesses.

6.  Like I said before, focus your fire.  You don't want to end up with just one frigate auto-attacking a capital ship (though I'm sure the AI is smarter than that).  This allows you to take down each ship one at a time quickly, so that that's one less attacker, one less attacker, and so on.  This allows your fleet to survive more battles.

7.  NO SPAMMING!  I know I said that before, but I just had to emphasize the point.

8.  If you wanna use a bunch of timed explosives on a structure, go ahead.  Just don't over-spam the scout frigates, it's a total waste of money if you do.

9.  If you ask me, tactical structures are under-rated.  I don't know why, but when people build them (if they build them at all), they build only two or three.  Do you realize how much power those things have?  They may not be able to move, and they may have a short range, but that's why their TACTICAL structures.  You've gotta use them in ways people wouldn't expect.  For instance, say your opponent brings a fleet with about 70+ frigates, and you've only got 50 frigates.  Theirs a build up of cannons stacked close together.  You can lure your opponent right into these cannons and watch the fireworks.  Suddenly, you're not outnumbered anymore.  You have just basically one that battle.  This tactic is more effective when you do research to increase these turrets' range.

10.  ABSOLUTELY NO SPAMMING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Yes, I know.  Third time.  But some people just don't get it, so I thought maybe that the third time's a charm.

11.  Civilian research is the best way to keep your fleet running.  Long-distance jumps, wormholes, refineries, trade ports, artic and volcanic colonization.  All these are ways to make sure your fleet can keep being built upon. 

12.  If you think just building your fleet costs enough, you may wanna hold off on research until you're happy with the size of your fleet.  Which do you think is better, one ship with a 10% damage bonus, or two ships without research.  Do the math yourself, typing this post is enough work.

Well, I hope you like this post better than my last one.  Thanks for reading.