Only in the early game.  Late game the vasari airforce is the strongest.  They get the most out of their upgrades and end up being very powerful.

Very true. Phase Missiles are what I like to call 'Equalizers.'

But lore-wise, I think, Advent are the best at SC. That's where I was coming from.

Here's my elementary analysis. Building carrier cruisers with fighters to counter LRF:

Your race vs. enemy's race:

TEC vs Advent: Like you said, bad idea, given Advent's Disciples and given that once they'll have Illums they'll certainly be able to support enough flak to fight off fighters.

TEC vs Vasari: TEC will NEED a lot of LRMs ASAP to counter Vasari caps and SB. By the time TEC has the freedom to diversify in carrier cruisers/fighters, Vasari would probably be able to easily field enough flak to make the strategy ineffective. Probably.

TEC vs TEC: Works decently. Initially, at least, though enemy Gardas will come in soon enough.

Advent vs. anyone: Advent have horrible strike-craft and have durable scouts for countering LRF, so carrier cruisers/fighters for them are not a good idea.

Vasari vs. TEC: Works very well. Durable Vasari fighters are a huge plus in the early-game given that quite a lot of flak are necessary to make a dent in them. And TEC are virtually guaranteed to be making tons of LRM vs. Vasari.

Vasari vs. Advent: Disciple spam will make carrier cruisers very vulnerable, and Advent doesn't build Illums early enough anyway.

Vasari vs. Vasari: Due to the possibility of an enemy SB, initially putting money into firepower in Assailants would probably be a better idea. But after you have enough Assailants, carriers/fighters aren't a bad idea at all.

Even in the early game? How do you figure? Even Advent bombers die quickly to flak.

EDIT: Unless you're thinking of ADA, which can be quite useful.

I mean the early early game, like the first encounter, the advent carrier and the advent airforce has the advantage.  that being said, the longer the game goes on the faster this advantage is eaten up, mainly when flak comes into the game.

It'll tear apart the advent fighters and bombers (advent bombers need more armor/health imo!)

The only real way to win any race while using Advent is to flung s**t at your monitor, and hope that the area of effect will be enough to destroy any fleet within range. preferably, 10 waves should be enough.

Its the other way round. there the best at anti-sc to be precise.

Best Flak, Big Carrier Cruiser(fighters), Vertigo affects SC aswell and Push from the Halcyon.

I'm not a fan of having more than 1 cap in entire games but having a rapture and a halcyon in a fleet of carriers, flak and illums is in retrospect a more defensive yet offensive configuration. Unlike flak burst from tec that requires many kols -you can defend yourself well with just 2 caps.  

Config: 1 carrier, 1 flak, 2 illums. I cycle building with this template to make up fleets of anti-sc capability.

Just remember with advent getting all shield upgrades and shield mitigation and armor is more or less a counter in terms of defense against an opponent who responds with lf to take out your flak and carriers. Its up to u to change from fighters to bombers in which ever config u like. I'm also not a fan of building Guardians that channel and die. When i really feel lucky i build guardians to piss off enemy fleets.  

Good luck having the freedom to do something like that in a competitive game... research is expensive and time-consuming

lol Everything i say here is so self conflicted because in sins u need a whole book to explain one's strategy .  I think its safe to say i don't actually research anything early game .. esp with advent i find it so difficult. Usually when i have an edge i can throw away 600-1000 credits esp every 20 minutes. Instantly throwing away over 5000 credits to get the whole shield and mitigation branch isn't what i mean.

I'd buy that book. Where can I get it? Tell me it wasnt at Borders...

Its was.

lol.

Anyhow -one could bring up the fact that the illumminator uses an aim-bot targeting system for each bank.

However it still doesn't justify its pricing.