such as the fact that apparently skirmishers and cobalts are way more effective at killing a starbase than disciples.
That's not a trade secret....that's a myth....some skilled players continue to spread this lie but testing has shown that all 3 factions can LF spam and stop any Orky rush dead cold provided they fleet ASAP and hit it when it starts building...
I would argue Advent actually have an advantage over TEC...their disciples have more DPS per fleet supply than cobalts and while the marza may help kill the SB faster, the progenitor keeps your LFs alive better plus it has SC (bombers if you choose) to begin with while marza doesn't...
Vasari is the most technical faction as they have a lot of tricks in the bag...you have a lot of strategies with minelayers, placing mines in large fleets and hoping they prime before getting killed...old days people used subverters to lock fleets down while mines were laid but that's not common anymore...
Using Orkies to rush is an art that requires a lot of practice...overseers are a must mid and late game...early game, bombing out and colonizing the planet with the egg is important since SBs build faster in friendly territory (even neutral is better than enemy)...skirantra with repair cloud ain't bad either, though it ain't as useful as an egg in general so better to orky rush with egg....
Repulsion tactics with Advent are important though not crucial...probably single best counter to protect your carriers from the VL titan...desperation is a passive so you can't really block it with disruption matrix or AM depleting non sense....
Knowing how to counter Marza's missile barrage is important....ion bolt on akkan works wonders (armistice is nice too), also you can use prog's shield regeneration but that requires intense micro and some luck....wouldn't try it unless you have at least shield regeneration lvl 3....
Mass disorientation is awesome for trapping corvette fleets or an annoying titan....red button is pretty much standard on all TEC SBs save maybe one saving a suicide's HW....lot of players don't use it but I highly recommend always considering phase stabilizer on your Orkies, it does wonders when you really need it and it's only one slot (this is more of a mid-late game thing)...ain't a bad idea to put one orky with PS on friendly HWs when you are eco and you know some enemy VL is going to be kostura jumping to someone's HW...
If you are doing the whole VL fleet of doom thing, you have to have an egg for colonizing (gravity warhead and drain planet are nice too)....you need a skirantra with repair, you need a marauder so you can eventually get it to lvl 6...everything else should be kortuls with jam weapons and disruptive strikes (if you get enough caps you can double up on egg and marauder in case you lose one)...it is worth paying to upgrade your kortuls....
Do NOT underestimate fighter spam in the late game....if you have good titan AoEs (or a marza with MB), then your enemy cannot field flak spam (likewise, you probably can't either) and thus fighters are your absolute best counter to corvettes...plus, you can always swap for bombers if the situation demands it...50/50 on fighters and bombers also works, and of course always defer to corvette spam if your enemy has too many kols, halcyons, or kortuls of mid-high level....fighters when in high enough numbers still can kill caps, titans, and SBs...basically, you go fighters when the enemy has lots of corvettes, otherwise probably bombers (some argue using bombers to kill carriers is superior to using fighters to counter bombers)...
Some viable civ lab starts if you are on the frontline....advent can rush culture, put a civ lab on your HW, 2nd civ lab on moon or roid, scrap capital ship factory, and put culture on HW...you probably can get away with it if your opponent doesn't rush LRFs and isn't too close (this strategy is less viable these days since people start with 2 frigate factories)...you can do one civ lab and one mil lab as TEC start, get modular architecture ASAP to reduce cost of extractors and factories...pays off quite quickly if you are in a 2s or 3s, or a roomy map (like a huge with only 8 players)...
If you are TEC eco, use your techs....you have modular architecture, you have a tier 4 tech that reduces cost of civ slot upgrades...you have development mandate, you have pervasive economy...GET THOSE TECHS...they will easily pay for themselves...don't forget to social specialize your HW all the way, and probably any terrans or oceanics within a few jumps of your HW...try to put all your labs and culture centers on the planets you do social specialization, don't spread your labs out if you are eco....
Of course if you are TR eco then you got TAR....rush TAR if you have 2 ecos on your team or are really confident in your frontliners and have no suicide...if you are only eco and you have a suicide or a wishy washy frontliner, don't TAR because it will hurt your ability to feed early (you can always TAR in the mid-game)....
As eco, it can work to build 2 colony caps...if you have lots of high militia planets, it may be worth it, but if you got lots of easy grab planets don't bother, just rush center of map....obviously not necessary if you TAR...
Oh, and for the love of god don't rush a titan while on frontline....
