What are the different factions good at?

Newbie wants to know how to play

from Sins Forums
Hi,

I'm a mega-newbie, never played the beta or anything, but tracked the game for a long time. Anyway, started my first game yesterday, and since the TEC seemed like the boring, standard human faction, I picked Vasari, thinking I would move to Advent later.

At any rate, I got my butt kicked. But that's basically irrelevant - what *is* relevant is that I think I didn't understand the Vasari philosophy, what they are good at doing, how they are to be played, etc. For my starting (and only) capital ship I picked that Kortul Devastator, but I noticed it pretty much got it's butt kicked not only by the TEC cap ship I would run into, but also the Advent cap ship. I suppose I (initially) thought that Vasari was a brute force heavy-hitting faction, and that Kortul was a brute force heavy-hitting ship, but maybe I was wrong?

Later, I read some posting on these forums where a guy described the TEC as the straight-ahead, brute force, heavy-hitting type faction, and he basically insinuated that Vasari was more of a raiding hit and run type faction.

Since I should not be worried about trying to master finesse at this phase of the game (I simply want to learn it and feel it out), straight-ahead brute force was what the doctor ordered, so for my next game I switched to the "boring, standard" TEC. I picked the Kol Battlecruiser, and basically made a fleet of those light frigates to accompany it, and I have kicked butt so far. This seems to confirm to me that this faction (or at least this cap ship) is the "straight ahead, brute force, heavy hitting" faction, and that I am using them correctly, therefore I am obtaining results. But maybe I'm wrong.

My question: What are the different factions good at, and how should they be played? Specifically, is the TEC the brute force faction? Is the Vasari some sort of a finesse, raiding, hit and run faction? Finally, I have no idea about the Advent - what are they all about?

Thanks.
6,014 views 4 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
My question: What are the different factions good at, and how should they be played? Specifically, is the TEC the brute force faction? Is the Vasari some sort of a finesse, raiding, hit and run faction? Finally, I have no idea about the Advent - what are they all about?
End of quote


That's fairly accurate for the TEC - their ships aren't particularly powerful, but they're cheap and a TEC player can build lots of them because the faction has a very powerful economy (trade ports very early in the tech tree, as well as some great economy techs to help out later).

The Vasari are pretty slow at getting the economy going, and their ships are much more expensive while being more powerful. Their abilities aren't focused as much on direct offense like the TEC - instead they have a lot of various disabling/interrupting abilities. The staple of Vasari technology is the phase gate, which allows ships to move between two phase gates in a straight line, ignoring the usual phase lanes. One of their capitals can create a temporary phase gate on itself, allowing for some great sneak attacks and raids. In general, the Vasari are your phase-manipulating race and a lot of their abilities deal with phase space/disruption/sight.

The Advent are somewhere in the middle power-wise. Their ships have very good defensive combinations, and a lot of their focus is in buffing friendly ships/debuffing the enemy. They also have the best fighters/bombers of the three races. The staple of the Advent is probably their culture, where they get fairly considerable defensive bonuses while under influence of their culture, and they can see into any enemy planet being affected by their own culture.

Hope this helps a bit :)
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
Vasari are good hit n' runners. Thier ships really shine once upgraded and with proper forces for the situation. They are Tough middle of the road between the TEC and Advent.

Advent have good Economy. They get more bang for thier buck.

The biggest diffrence between them is how they handle carriers.

TEC make thier fighters/bombers Stronger.
Vasari make thier fighters/bombers harder to hit.
Advent make more fighters/bomber squadrons and more ships PER squadron.
Fences - Organize your desktop icons today!
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
I like the Vasari.

Ive been playing with them and have been using the Capital ship that looks like a giant escape ship from star wars...dont know what its called but its quoted as beig one of the colony ships.

anyway the first thing I noticed - ive only played as tec before- is that the vasari ships cost more, but they also seem to be alot more powerful... their heavy cruiser- i dont remember its name, but its the heavy hitting one - is insanely powerful and with upgraded guns it just pew, pews, through everything.

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
Um... Thereal, the TEC has a better economy than the advent :P

Personally, I'd say you need to play all three. The differences, though very potent, are rather subtle, and difficult to summarize accurately.