so I start securing the system waiting for my colonizer to arrive to populate the asteroid allowing me to start production guess what OMG the sent a fleet after me so it was my turn to run lol
The AI often is very good about regrouping (as far as AI's go), and for your first month in the game this can make for a very rich experience. Once you get into advanced tactics and start applying real pressure games, the AI has a very hard time coping and it becomes easy to put it on the defensive even when it outnumbers you. Of course, once you get to that level, no AI is going to be a real challenge, so Sins is still pretty exceptional.
I've been playing as TEC and I see them as a middle of the road race; great economy; good firepower and doesn't rely on shields but moreso on armor which is fine by me
TEC is really about getting the best bang for your buck. Best economy, best "value" frigates, and some wicked empire-building potential in there. Against the AI, that's all you'll really need. Online, they're great for rushing but if you're interested in late-game with advanced fleets the TEC is really an underdog faction and difficult to play.
I don't have too much of a problem with dealing with the pirate raids with this race but if I play Advent I usually have very high casualties when I play them
Advent is very weak early-game, but if you can reach more advanced fleets Advent becomes a true nightmare. It's not unheard of for Advent to defeat TEC fleets of equal size without taking a single casualty. The trick is to stack shield projection (Iconus Guardian), shield restore (Progenitor Mothership), and vertigo (Rapture Battlecruiser). Between these three abilities, you block/absorb/prevent so much incoming damage that the enemy fleet basically can't even get through your shields.
It's pot luck whether or not I can save my free capitol Is this because they rely much heavier on air power rather than the brute force approach of TEC. (On tec I spec nothing but fighters for air superiority)
Use fighters in conjunction with gardas; gives you a much more even spread of damage. If the enemy is very heavy on bombers, you may want to bring out the Kol with its flak burst ability. Time it manually and you can mince an incoming wave of strike craft and make it easy for your frigates and fighters to clean them up.
Don't be too afraid to go a little heavy on gardas. Despite being presented as a dedicated counter unit, they actually are pretty decent against frigates as well. They just can't focus fire on one target since their guns are facing all different directions.
I concur with my colleagues here; turning pirates off can actually improve the game and definitely makes it easier to learn.
