actually that game i didnt have enough feed nor econ to spam anything else even my hull and shield research was retarded

i usualy go for guardians but you need a progen to get them

and you actually didn't win the battles ^^ that immense shield dishd was on your 4 caps you lost and that sb witch survived because of a lack of coordination

you had a lot more feed then me so i had to go no spaming lums, guardians just die if you don't have 1 or 2 progen so you need a constant feed to dish em out and that was impossible for me

but you did very well i was always runing around, like that roid i lost 5 times ^^

EDIT: Accidental double-post.

I'm aware; if the three of you had been able to hit in a coordinated fashion, I'd have been screwed.  Fact is, I got to single each of you guys out and managed to survive and level up my caps, and then Revenge had to fall back turning it into a 2v1.  Combined with your failed rush at my starbase, that turned things around.  I realize you guys dropped the ball and I only got back up because of that, but I'll take it. 

As for shield damage, it cannot be explained by the starbase and caps alone.  I can't remember the numbers off the top of my head, but I had approximately double the shield damage absorbed of any other player.

Money-wise, I'm aware I got more feed than you, but you also got a lot more material support than I did.  Every time I tried to make a decisive push against you someone would show up and turn it into a 2v1.  In fact, it wasn't until I put up that starbase that my feed levels significantly exceeded your's (that was also where the "2v1" issue started to come in), and I already had guardians researched by this point.  On the other hand, I had just lost a key battle at the volcanic and lost most of my fleet just prior to that, and I think getting guardians out on the field too quickly was part of my error.  On the other hand, if I'd waited for five or six guardians to complete and just let you have the volcanic, that would have been another matter entirely...

This wasn't intended as a knock on you.  I've been noticing this a lot lately from many players.  Two Halcyons followed by illuminator spam is unsurprisingly quite common right now.

@Swordsalmon

I didn't get repulse until very late, and ironically I never used it even once I had it.  Both my opponents were spamming illuminators, so the purpose of repulse was actually to use the guardian as a "sacrificial lamb" to cover the retreat of my fleet.  As for cost, I'm talking of fleets which already have 40 or 50 illuminators; we're talking size large enough that scale starts to have a big impact on the viability of area of effect abilities.

In the first big battle over the volcanic, you pretty much wiped out my fleet.  That was my big blunder, and I spent the rest of the game recovering from it.  I had just invested a bunch of cash in researching guardians and bought my progen, but I only had one guardian available at the time.  I should have fallen back and waited for more to produce.  Instead, I tried to fight and ended up losing most of my fleet and my Progen.

Honestly, though, if you had skipped the volcanic and directly assaulted my homeworld, my starbase wouldn't have been upgraded in time and you'd have won.  That was your biggest blunder.  Instead, I was able to recover and since I already had guardians researched that gave me a big advantage in the coming fight.

I think the question here is when does it become appropriate to invest in guardians and a progen to support illuminators.  In hindsight, it appears you waited too long, and I didn't wait long enough.  I got crushed in an early battle because I invested in that tech but hadn't gotten the units on the field.  You were getting pushed back in the late game by a superior fleet and couldn't afford to bring out the higher tech units since you had to constantly pump illuminators.

We'll never know, but I think you were on the verge of collapse.  When you dumped, I had more illuminators than you on the battlefield, plus a big chunk of flaks, plus guardians, plus two level 5 progenitors, and I'd rebuilt my Halcyon.  As soon as one of my Progens reached level 6 (only a few minutes after you dumped), I promoted that Halcyon to level 8.  You'd have needed serious feed to have survived that.

As for the overall position, the real problem there was Koala, who took nearly an hour and a half to defeat an AI.  As a result, our pocket was exposed when it shouldn't have been, and Fabulous took a 2v1 when he shouldn't have.  Heck, if Koala had been competent, Revenge should have been taking a 2v1 and been pushed on the defensive. 

I'm more talking about the guardian shield projection rather than repulse.  I didn't have repulse researched until the very end of the game, and I never really had an opportunity to use it.  All my nearby enemies were Advent.  I was more using shield projection to absorb that side-beam damage, and combining that with shield restore to keep everything topped up.  I don't think anyone would argue that guardians weren't extremely beneficial, the real question is when it's worth the cost to bring them out.

I use guardians as part of a combo with radiance battleships. I use shield projection to tank the damage from animosity while the rest of my fleet pounds on theirs with impunity. Then I follow up with cleansing briliance. Combined arms will trump a one dimensional army 9 times out of 10.