NO



Nothing as the have already got a lock on the planets quwardenates

DarkStar

I am also fairly new at this game and have been playing only advent (there's something about the female voice that I like...) but I've found that Advent fighting against the other factions feels slow.

I have been playing against the AI and I find that getting a strong foothold in the planets around your home is key. What you want to do is build 2-3 temples of harmony and get the culture bonuses around the outer systems. After that purge your resources into hostility, namely getting some of the heavier ships and upgrades for them. Use your main fleet of deciples and supplement them with illuminators and guardians. Finally work your way up to the Crusaders. Advent is the one faction that benefits from having a large assortment of ships, rather than spamming one ship type to achieve victory. Micromanagement is key, even in very large games where your micro-management is going to consist of monitoring your fleet composition.

Use this force sparingly early game, since it is both your offense and defense. The culture will ensure that even if you lose a planet the end result will equate to nothing since the enemy must move farther into your system to accomplish something (hopefully closer to the force you have en-route to counter.)

Take your planets back and once you have a heavier, versatile fleet begin your advance. Don't bother with strike craft or static defense as Advent, it is weak and will only cost you resources you should be purging into military. With defense vessels strike craft are much easier to counter as Advent, and if you find that your opponents are using them punch in with heavier ships and move in for a kill. Defense vessels are cheap and effective, use them accordingly.

Swarms of smaller ships are actually going to be a lot tougher for you to take out than a few heavy ships. For this I would go with the mothership early game because the colonize ability makes expanding faster, and for early-mid game the malice ability is almost required for fighting against swarms of smaller enemy ships. It gives deciples the advantage against the light cobats that you will most likely encounter. Later these swarms become much easier to take out because of the support ship abilities granted by later ships.

With this strategy you need to make sure you are playing the intelligence game. Scout the map and your opponents and make sure you know where they are moving when they decide to. Know where the choke points are on the map and get there first and hold those positions while you build a larger fleet. Unfortunately maps with many, many points of access are a disadvantage for the Advent because they have such a slow early game. If you find someone rushing you your attempts to counter may already be too late. In fact, using intelligence rather than culture defense can be just as effective if you can react fast enough. You will run the risk of losing ground against skilled opponents faster this way in my opinion.

For anyone who thinks Advent are weak early - try surviving a illum rush!!!
Playing as TEC I find I will generally loose early game UNLESS I can get some hoshikos into the mix

Stop spreading evil