Favorite Trinity Tactics

Collect donations from your enemies? If you have allies it is much safer to use them.

The TEC really don't have a lot of complex tactical strategies, besides all of the chaos you can create with the Akkan's armistice. Most human players can intelligently deal with missile barrage or the red button now, though they can produce awesome results if you can pull it off. Otherwise its just relying on their very cost effective unit stats and superior economy to out produce your opponents.

I would say that few players bother with mines or hangars (unless placed strategically around a starbase), repair bays are much a much better defensive structure, especially for the TEC. By all means fortify your vital planets, but for the rest static defense are probably just a waste of resources. Also many players prefer to play with the pirates off, as the credits needed to control them effectively are usually better spent elsewhere.

Agree with GaoFan on every point.  TEC is very much a faction of attrition, and is all about maintaining a solid pressure game and using your generally superior economy and cost-value units to beat down your opponent.  Paradoxically for a "strong eco" faction, TEC is the last faction you can just sit back and build up with.  They can't allow their opponents any breathing room and must be constantly bearing down with their full weight.

Cause if they don't... the Vasari will eat them up, or the Advent will bomb them all away.

     I've found that the TEC has two different Attrition style plays that work.  Against Human opponents, the key to victory is an aggressive offense that keeps the enemy rocking; never let them get set!  However, in allof the RTS games I play, whether it is the Stronghold series, Star Wars: Empire at War, American Conquest, Gal Civ, etc.; I have found that the AI is superior in the short run to a Human opponent.  Speaking simply, the AI has the ability to multitask, and it always knows the current strength and disposition of my forces.  I've found that the most effective way to defeat an AI, is to reach out and gobble up as much territory as I can at the onset of the game, and then dig in and let the AI break over me like a wave.  I keep strong static defenses on my fringe worlds, with backup fleets sitting in the phase lanes a gravity well behind.  This always fools the computer into attacking with an understrength fleet, and allows me to totally annihilate it with a relatively small one.  Meanwhile, I build up and invasion fleet and bide my time.  About 90% of the time this tactic leads to an economic stall on behalf of the computer, as it must continually rebuild its fleets, and cannot reinvest in its economy.  The end result is a floundering AI that is ripe for conquest.  If I lose a battle, then I do so Bunker Hill-style; the AI, though victorious, is so badly crippled by its victory that it cannot continue its onslaught. 

    Humans, on the other hand, can employ tactics; therefore, they are much superior in the long run, and much more dangerous.  Y'all are correct that the best defense is a good offense; it's the only way to win an RTS game against Human opponents. 

    As far as static defenses lacking worth...they can be enough to tip the scales of a battle.  Hangars are especially effective with their strike craft and flak busting capabilities.  Overlapping fields of fire can effectively dismantle an enemy strike craft attack, while the hangar-based strike craft can accent a defense fleet quite admirably.  Despite the classic feel of gauss rifle turrets, I have never seen them effectively deployed, and rarely use them myself.  I rarely use repair platforms due to their tactical slot requirements.  Instead, I employ scores of Hoshikos as fleet support.

    As for the Envoys...they make pretty good scouts.  They're tougher due to their immunity capability, and are not as conspicuous as a scout or a warship.  "The only good form of diplomacy is a fully-charged phaser bank!"  Scotty Star Trek 

    Overall, I agree with y'all; the TEC is a vulnerable faction early in the game.  However, it is probably the strongest late-game player due to its ability to out-produce the other factions... 

I think most PvP players would say the exact opposite. TEC is strongest early game and weakest late. The reason being by that time the other factions have equal Econ and better fleets/tactics.

But then again this is based of what most play online, 5v5 single star random. Fastest speeds.

    @Ue_Carbon

    I'm more of a slower gamer and prefer larger, multi-star maps.  I also use the "save" ability for LAN matches to continue games later with my compatriots.  Some of them can last for quite some time as it is becoming more and more difficult to beat each other.  The last two games ended in ties where none of us could gain an upper hand.

    I have a slow Internet connection and cannot play on the web.  All of my games are on a LAN with my family and friends.  Still waiting for the net guardians to offer us DSL here in the Outer Rim Territories... 

i like using crusaders, guardians, carriers, and defense vessels 

When I play as Advent I do the same... they don't have much else available atm.

Agreed. To the OP, while I agree that you want to employ different tactics against AI and human players, I don't think your playstyle is the best, or even an effective strategy. The AI's incompetence allows you to get away with turtling, but that doesn't make it a good strategy. As a former turtler myself (from some of those same games you mentioned), my game performance improved dramatically as soon as I started expanding more aggressively. Claiming as many neutral planets as possible in the first phase of the game is critical, and the economic dividends it pays along with the smaller AI empires makes the games much shorter and easier to win. Now if you like taking a long time to play your games to enjoy Sins awesome sense of scale and Empire management, turtling is understandable, but I do not think it is a good way to win in any circumstance (unless you have a lot of AI's allied against you where you might have no choice).

Also it is pretty well agreed that the TEC is best early game. While the TEC economy becomes enormous late game, by then the other factions will have fairly large fleets too and with much better military technology. It is not uncommon for a well managed Advent or Vasari fleet to destroy a substantially larger TEC fleet with minimal losses. Thus massive production and fleet replacements are your only real options (as well as clever tactics with what little you do have, like armistice and attacking from multiple fronts).

Hoshikos are awesome, but repair platforms with fully upgraded repair abilities are unbelievable. While you'll need a starbase or a stationed fleet for them to be truly useful, they give the defending forces a big enough advantage to be worth it. In addition, Hoshikos and repair bays stack, so you can get +60 hull repair if you use both, which most players do.

While I do use TEC hangars for Flak support around starbases, without repair bay support I find they don't last long enough to be useful. Further for the cost carrier cruisers or plenty of other frigates are more cost effective and mobile, which is why static defenses (except repair bays) are frowned on except for vital worlds or if your fleet supply is maxed out (and it would ruin your economy to increase it).

A skilled TEC player with can match Vasari and Advent if they substantially outnumber them.  I've rolled late-game Vasari fleets with overwhelming TEC firepower before, but you need at least one fleet level advantage, if not two, just to even the scales.  TEC can compete on an even playing field if they have several level 6+ capital ships, but this is very difficult to pull off since you cannot replace these if they die.  Controlling all the key choke points is another way to even the score, but again that's highly situational.

Of course, a novice TEC player will get annihilated by an experienced Advent or Vasari player in the late game regardless of how many units he has.  You have to be top-notch to play late-game TEC and one screw-up will destroy you.  It's basically the same kind of challenge as playing Advent in the early-game currently.

I love this; extreme repair power is one of TEC's greatest assets.  Who even needs a superpower economy when your units just won't die.  This is absolutely phenomenal on capital ships and starbases (though who in their right mind would actually tackle such a starbase head on?)

Who sets up static defenses without repair platforms?  Seriously, if you're setting up static defenses, the first things you should plot down are repair platforms.  And the only starbase that should be without repair platform support is one built in an uncolonizable gravity well.

I've found that if you have an Akkan with multiple points in targeting uplink that TEC turrets can be worthwhile.  With that range upgrade, they can cover a simply massive area around themselves.  On an asteroid, you can create a very nice blockade like this.