Looking for a few TEC tips

Well you seem to have a basic grasp of starting strategy. However, first of all you should rarely if ever build refineries, trade ports are much more useful. Many times people will only research refineries for the improved trade upgrades (a very good tech mid game). Also if it is a moderately large map you're going to want to research broadcast centers sooner or later, to boost and protect your planets alligence. Other than that the civilian tech's are largely situational. Military is dominated by the LRM, but some people like getting flak and carriers out relitively quickly, and are viable strategies.

For build order, capital ship factory is always first, then research labs (which ones depends on the map, so scout to see if you're going to need extra military power or 2 civil research labs for colonizing ice and volcanic planets). After you have your asteroid and maybe anther planet, start building trade ports, and then basically do more of the same till you have 7 of each lab and lots trade ports (on every planet more often than not). Fortify them as you and your opponet expand near eachother, but most planets that are not directly in harms way probably need little fortification.

Well, I can give you a run down of how I play as TEC.

First off, keep the Marza!

The way I tend to expand is as follows. Buy the extractors ( i think that's what you meant when you refered to refineries. I will buy 100 crystal, sell 200 metal, and then I will buy the population upgrade for the homeworld. Also, scrap the cap ship factory after you build the marza. It's worth it.

I actually tend to get two logistics labs to start. This is because the Marza can clear all but the most heavily defended off terrans/deserts. This may sound wierd, but I like to buy at a minimum 3 colony frigs rather than 2. The slow antimatter regen rate of colony frigs is just too slow otherwise.

To support the Marza, I buy it somewhere around 10 scouts to support the Marza. That may sound wierd, but understand scouts do anti-light damage. They are VERY good against seige frigates and long range frigates. The scouts are mainly to just give early support.

Once you have three planets, that's when I get two military labs and tech for lrms. Try to place your labs so that you leave an open slot for a building at each planet. I say this because once I have the fourth planet, I make a decision.

1. I am far enough from my enemy that it makes sense to buy trade ports and set up a trade line. The sooner it's up, the sooner it will pay itself off.

2. I am fairly close to my enemy. Instead of tradeports, I invest in a mix of lrms, hoshikos, and POSSIBLY carriers. The idea here is to try to expand as quick as you can . You want planets. Getting planets is your eco boost.

Tradeports are too risk/reward to get them when your enemy is close.

As far as upgrades I definitely get, here's the list.

1. Lava/Ice Colonization as necessary ( this is the main reason I get two logistics labs early )

2. LRM tech

3. Repair bay tech: TEC Repair bays are absolutely ridiculous

4. Tier 1 of Health and Armor Upgrades. Buy these once you have a fleet maxed out on the first tier of population upgrade

5. Terran Pop Upgrade. I buy these early rather tha later. It pays itself off.

6. Modular Architecture: Extractors/Frig Facs/Cap Facs are 20%/40% cheaper. I buy this ater I get my first roid. I ALWAYS rebuild my frig factories somewhere closer to the front lines. I also build two. And then a cap factory if I'm actually going to build a second cap.

7. The tier 1 metal upgrades. I buy these once I colonize a lava. 

Oh, if you see your enemy starting to spam Illuminators, switch from LRMS to kodiaks (the tier 5 heavy cruiser). If it's very early in the game, this probably isn't practical. Early on I would recommend playing a bit more defensively. Use repair bays mixed with hoshikos to hold off Illums early on. Hoshikos mixed with Kodaks can overwhelm Illums.

What's sad is if you see Guardians early on, you're probably fucked. The second an Advent player starts using repulse, TEC is done. There is no debate here. The best of the vets agree there is no counter ro repulse, so pray your friends aren't smart enough to use it right.

There is a strategy as TEC that can cripple an enemy's economy very early in the game on a smaller map (3-5 jumps from your homeworld to the enemy's).

Instead of a marza, get a sova carrier as your first capital ship and give it the ability embargo, jump the ship to your enemy's Homeworld and use embargo to steal their tax income. It will give you enough credits to buy some resources or ships and keep (one) of your enemy's down for a little while.

It is important to note however, that the sova carrier is very weak in direct combat and your enemy's capital can more than likely kill it fairly quickly. The success of this strategies relies on the support for your carrier. Build the resource asteroids at your HW, then a cap factory, sell metal to buy crystal if necessary and build the sova. Build a colony frigate and some lfs and scouts (no more than three or so of each). As the sova is enroute to the enemy grav well, move your smaller fleet to the asteroid, use the scouts on the siege frigate and the lfs on the enemy lf and then colonize it.

By this time, the sova should arrive and activate embargo, use the extra resources to buy labs (probably military, but it depends on how many other enemies you have around) and build extra ships to capture the next planet.

If it works, you enemy will have a HW that is not giving them very good credit income and an asteroid doing the same thing, try to kill the resource asteroids at their HW too for even more of an ealry game lead.

It is one of the most effective rushes after the advent strategies.

Also, the best tactical structure, next to a fully upgraded starbase, is the repair bay. Use them liberally, a couple repair bays can allow a smaller fleet to repel a larger one and not get totally crushed in the process.

tec style of playing this game is building a shitload of ships [depends on what you wanna counter ofcourse] and mixing it with hoshikos.

Important one: dont eat yellow snow.

oh yea and first armor and hp upgrades are critical

about civ labs - getting the cost reduce upgrade for extractors might no always be smart choice at start[while it definatly worth it] you may better spend the resources on another few ships ...same about terran population upgrade.

its not always worth to build civ lab,even if most say it is - especially when the enemy is few jumps away.

and another thing - when facing advent [at least if you are sure in it] better will be to get the dunov with its emp shot and not the marza.

for defence,when entrenching deep - a lone starbase is not good enouph,always put some repair bays and turrets around it[each turret is 20dps,tahts 1/5 of sb base dps omg]. on late stage defence always get the flak cannon upgrade for hangars and put them around sb  [the fighters you put on hold at the same spot]  the thing is that in addition to fighters you get 40+ antifighter dps which is great.

and as always mix it all with hoshikos

against advent its always good choice to add flak frigs to the fleet

advent repulse can be countered [not really succefully] with akkan range bonus aura for LRM or dunov emp shot [marza missile barrage covers iconus range,but thats a spherical horse - too much of theorycraft]

picking akkan at start may be good for a quick expanding in 2 directions - need some practicing for it.......3-4 cobalts with a colony frig go to the roid and akkan goes to the less guarded planet nearby

keep in mind that enemy may wanna rush before doing that.

cielo command cruisers second ability is increasing dmg by 40% on chosen target...its a guaranteed death for the the enemy cap/sb

cobalts.they are good and I love them.ofcourse they die to any dumb LRF spammer,and yes advent disciples are better.but cobalt is really a workhorse of the tec and can succefully counter everything except the LRF.[dont forget the sabotage and other upgrades].work good with scouts and hoshikos.

something thats good for all races -

always scout to know whats happening

putting  few turrets tacticaly wise is always a genious investment - each turret has 3k hp,20 dps and costs just 250/75/35 ? yay,gimme moar.

Geez proletari, you couldn't do just one long post?

NO! Cobalts are useful for clearing the first couple planets, but they are not and likely will NEVER be the bread and butter unit (to quote Darvin) They do not do that much damage to anyting: Scouts are generally more useful, except against lfs.

Situational, depends on what they are doing and how far away they are. Scout them, if they are going military you have to too, if they are going eco and have some neutrals around or a nice thick curtain of militia around, eco is a must or they will roll over you in about half an hour.

The best tactical structure is a repair bay, as TEC you have Hohos. Turrets cannot move, remember this. A fleet can, a fleet is the best defensive option in the game. Period.

Proletari, maybe these strats work for you (good job if they do) but i can't see them working against any player with at least a little experience.

Versus AI and pirates (in any case) and "normal" players (not the online-super-cracks) TEC turrets are absolutely underestimated and worth every credit. They are cheap, hard to destroy (when repair bays are in range) and with all the upgrades they deal much damage, get range increase and a second (rocket bursts) and even a third attack (meson bolt) not just dealing damage but even crippling the target ship.

A player can go around the turrets, or kill them with bombers or anti module cruisers. An AI will head straight towards them cause it likes pain.

Turrets are not complete crap, but remember that they are confined to the well they were built in, turrets are a passive defense, a fleet is an active defense.

Fully equipped turrets with armor and hull updates can hold their own against a fleet when they are packed around a Starbase with some hangars, that's what I've seen so far. I'm surprised how well my turrets completely smashed a fleet of my opponent with some mines and my Starbase.

What I've also sen today is that fully upgraded Ogrovs and LRMs do serious damage against Starbases and large structures. I made a seperated fleet of fully upgraded Ogrovs and LRMs and they took out a Starbase faster than my whole fleet could've done. In the laterstages of the game, definitly play around with these, LRMs you always should use early on

Problem with point defense ain't how though they are or how much damage they do cause it never comes to that. Point defense is taken out from outside their weapons range so they are pretty much useless in most cases. Unless for fast colonization.

Grtz,
Flipkik

Anderson after all your ridiculing you give the guy my strat without quoting the source. Be careful someone might actually think you know how to play. However, im callig copyright infringement on this one rofl!

Biscuit check out the TEC dominance post and u will find some helpful tips for a beginning TEC player. Welcome to the millenial fleet! Also i wouldnt advise taking too much alien advice_|~.

Question - if going econ against war is a loss, then why going war when you see enemy going econ is not a win?

He is the only one who thought of it... In own little dellusional world.

Also I don't think you can copyright tactics... It's like being in war with someone and suddenly dragging him to court cuz he used a tactic you used earlier?

Grtz,
Flipkik

Well You SUCK and by flips own admission i dust him so believe who you like young paduan. And yes im am the inventor of the sova rush. So ask around and be alittle more informed before you post!

--

I have often said ask howler and some other bia to confirm it that KoK his game ain't bad and is prolly way better than mine. But the fact that he is predictable affects his effectiveness allot. Thus also affects wether he is good or not. The main thing that annoys me and most others bout him is his ego.

Also KoK can't open the filefront atm. If it contains the fight with my sister with xfire on that'dd be funny . And yes it's true I did have a fight with my sister with xfire on once. Beating up? I never hit my sister. She rushed into my room and we had an arguement after which she left. And the fact that all heard it means many can confirm it. 

Grtz,
Flip

And BTW flip ive already patented the Kings Strategy

You invented shit. You're just one of a thousand players who launched the game, saw Sova, read the Embargo tooltip and tried to use it to some effect. I Sova rushed in my fifth SP game you kokhead. It's a stupid, blunt and obvious ability and any dead rodent with its brain half eaten by maggots would come up with that 'strategy'.
If that's your magnificent patent invention then I guess you should squeeze your grey cells some more, maybe you'll invent that it's safer to cross a road when it says "Walk", not "Stop".

Oh and "paduan"? Hilarious.
Well, not quite. Pathetic really.

Funny how you didnt refute the U SUCK part roflmao!

You find it that funny?
It never really came to me as important to rebuke such a childish attempt of an insult.

If enjoying that I didn't is the biggest joy of your life....

.. just die.

https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/308726

I think it was HuntingX who first came up with the idea of Sova Rushing. Claiming you coined Sova rushing is sorta ironic (if i've used the word properly for once), cause I'm pretty sure you started playing after the Embargo nerf. The whole point of said link is that was put up during 1.05 on Vanilla sins. Sova rushing has been around since the game came out. I don't remember your name when the game came out, so you can claim it all you want, doesn't make it yours.

Come on Aging Amish! I was one of the original sins players.  Back when it was me and DT Con just learning the basics. Amish dont be crass. Ive been playing the game longer than you.  And never required a change in game format to compete. As for the sova nerf, well as ive explained to you on numerous occsions the sova was nerfed from the beginning of the game because it never got its seventh fighter.

On another note, because i didnt post it on the boartds means nothing. I only came here after countless threads were made about me to dispell some of the rumors.  And the way you guys played sins it would be 30 minutes befor you showed up on anenemy homeworld so how could they have invented the sova rush. If you remember correctly i was well known for being able to build a good fleet from just an asteroid and my terran.

That is all

by the looks of your avatar. I would say death is on your mind not mine.

So please good sir

You first! I insist lol