not for the 40 hour comp stompers haha

AFAIK returning armada was pretty OP before entrenchment.

As others have mentioned these were strategies that were nerf out of practical game play.  The devs can tweak the amount of ships you get so they are not OP. As it stands Returning Dark Armada and Pirate Mercs are not worth the random units you get for the cost.  

As for super weapons they are dead as of 0.8 until buff or increase quantity. They should have made them an option like they do pirates. 

He mentioned superweapons and pirate mercs in the same post, I assumed he was talking about this post. I know RA was OP in entrenchment I was there (Although it could of been vanilla. I really could not tell you its been to long).

Do players not use returning armada in online play?

I am very annoyed that i will only be able to attack 4 different "behind the lines" planets with my fleet when i play vasari but the advent and tec weapons dont do anything for me

 i find that if i am TEC if i build them or not my human enemy simply has to put a starbase with the enforced loyalty in every system they own - its the threat of the weapon that forces your enemy to spend money - you dont actually have to build it

Advent cannon i thought was the weakest of the lot - maybe against an AI who does not know how to scuttle some logistics structures to replace them with more culture but thats it really 

Vasari one is the best by far - in a 2 v 2 game and you have a vasari enemy one of you has to keep 10+ cap ships far from the front lines at your back systems encase of attack and if you dont even with full upgraded starbases in every system you will still lose some back planets

I use RA is 5v5 Diplomacy MP matches regularly.  As long as neither flank folds like a lawn-chair, you pretty much should aim for it as any Vasari Eco.

They are not gone, superweapons are still very good, building more than even 1 in multiplayer would be a death sentence for you against good players. And you probably have not even tested the new Pirate Mercs, they definetly buffed it.

@User: Being able to 'only' hit 4 planets behind enemy lines is actually stupid good as it is...

What kind of buff they weapon? shorter time of shot? more damage of shot? or add something more than just a shot like gave more damage to fleet where they are shot?

HAHAHA HA HA

John James aka JJ was best player in sins before Auqia arrived on the scene. After that they shared the throne.

Although I rarely see him play nowadays I bet he is still one of best of best. Him to describe as decent is like describing half of pro community as noobs...

Yeah, when I read his post I thought, "wait..  What?"  It confused me quite a bit lol.

I've gone loyalist TEC as well once. It was an interesting strategy but if you were in eco you could help your partners while saving for Novalith Cannons. I placed a starbase between all of the worlds because it was in a perfect choke point so they could not be rushed without losing 50% of their hull. Then I just nuked their homeworlds.

But I have never had to go above 3 to cripple my opponent.