Introduction
Disclaimer:
This guide is for advanced players (you played lots of 5s before, you know every tech & ships of every race and you have good enough apm to control vets effectively).
I will not provide a lot general advice that applies to every race, it will focus on strategies, build orders and fleet composition of Advent Loyalist in 5s and the rest of my divine insight.
(most of the advice could be applied to other game type too).
most of fleet compositions can be applied to AR too.
Finally cosy up and have a good read.
Acronyms, abbreviations and definitions.
Races:
First letter:
A: Advent
T: TEC
V: Vasari
2nd letter
L: Loyalist
R: Rebel
X: Both or either
ex: AL = Advent loyalist. TX = both TEC factions.
Ships:
LF: light frigate.
LRF: long range frigate, ex: illums, lrm or kanrak.
VETS: corvettes.
HC: Heavy cruisers.
Flak: defense, garda, sentinels.
Capships:
Prog / Progen: AX colony capship.
Egg: VX colony capship.
A-AM cap: anti-antimatter capship, so Radiance, Kortul and Dunnov.
Fleet compositions:
RCR, fleet composed of a Rapture, carriers and 5-10 guardians with repulse.
Capship fleet, self explanatory, fleet made of principally capships.
Trans fleet, same thing but for advent only with Mass Transcendence so capships are lvl 4 and level up faster.
Positions :
Agro, Eco, Suicide, double.
You should know these, otherwise read Grimm’s guide.
True agro, like agro but there is no other ally after your enemy.
Sequential agro, like agro but there is an ally on the other side of your enemy.
Sequential suicide, like agro but if your ally is useless you are doubled.
Techs :
GU: Global unity double tech, small amount of free culture on every planet + 5%x2 max allegiance on your planets.
PFP: Planet for planet + 25% dps + 10% range on ships when you lose a planet, for a fairly long time.
FU : Fury of the unity + 20% dps on full allied culture.
MT: Mass transcendence double tech, free xp to lvl 4 on capship +25%x2 xp on titan and capship.
AC: Ancient retribution, +10% dps (not squadrons) + 5% range + 2% shield mitigation. (Calling it AR would be confusing)
ST: savage thrill TR tech 4 civic, 35% ish extra dps when they are bombing you.
RB: red button, big boom rage quit.
Civic/Military, Civ/Mil: I’m referencing research labs.
Other:
N fleet supply, Up to what fleet supply you have researched, 0 being without any tech.
sb: star base, can be use as a verb to build a star base or a noun.
Power through aggression (early steps agro)
You find yourself to be agro position, congrats you have the best race for this position, time to win it. Your first cap ship choice is extremely important because if you pick anything else than progen, you lost a big part of your advantage in most match ups, so trust me and pick the progen. Also build scouts, at least as many as you have lanes on your hw, so if your hw goes into 4 directions, build 2 extra scouts and probably a colony frigate if you have a lot of lanes.
0 fleet supply, Disciple or Corvette.
Now it sounds stupid, but corvette is the safer choice by far, hear me out, if you go disciple, you gamble that:
A) you are not getting rank rushed.
B) that there is no neutral to contest.
C) that you are not going to expand everywhere.
Explanations:
(A) The best way to win against the rank rush vs Vasari is that the migrator never touches your hw, disciple will never be able to snipe the migrator >20 vets easily will do the job.
(B) It is a lot harder to establish map presence with disciples against corvette, if your opponent is skilled and opened corvettes, unless the neutral magically spawned as the choke you will not be able to hold it.
(C) Your opponent fears your might and is turtling, worry not, just expand everywhere get full of cash and finish them later, the problem LF are super slow compared to corvette and you will have a harder time keeping balance between the front line and the colonisation.
Now you are colonizing 1-2 planets, you have a dozen vets; you are researching your first fleet supply and you scout your opponent. Chose your own adventure below:
Agro vs VX everything you need to know.
VasariX:
Rank rush? Snipe that/those migrator(s)!
Snipe the migrator ? congrats go to nr 1 otherwise read below
You didn’t snipe the migrator, a sb is building on your planet, don’t bother fighting it you can not possibly kill it. So you are in a little bit of trouble, but you are far from dead, send your progen on the map colonizing, use your vets to kill constructors, make sure any migrator is sniped and planet bombers for sure, if they sb everywhere they colonized, send your vets to a close ally, if possible, if not their enemy eco is always a worthwhile target, get culture up in the center of the map and play for containment, try to snipe any migrator possibly going to your allies/eco player.
Nr 1
Vasari anything else / you sniped the migrator: Good news, you have the upper hand and if you don’t ♥♥♥♥ up you should win, Vasari is really weak against AL.
Phase 1)
Now you want go up to >40 vets then disciple, always replenish dead vets. With your vets you will contest neutrals, kill any migrators spawning and ideally kill constructors, if you got a close map and you are fast you can perma kill a Vasari of any skill level quite easily with this.
At all time your fleet should be significantly stronger than theirs to keep map control, A) they probably starbased 1 to 3 planets and B) their ships are worse so even if you invest a lot in eco you can have a superior fleet at all time.
Your progen will either be used aggressively (bombing not starbased roids or hw for culture denial/pop damage) or completely gone to the middle of the map and colonizing, your progen should always be doing something it is completely useless defensively.
Phase 2)
Get culture, if you have control their hw with much stronger fleet, your culture will kill them. You need 2-3 temple on an adjacent roid/planet to counter the base culture push of 1-2 capital ships. If they managed to get culture up, you can still kill them with culture! You just need star bases now and the +60% culture spread and your capships on their hw, for that you need to make sure your fleet is stronger than theirs. If you have one of the planets adjacent to their hw, you can almost always do it.
Didn’t win?)
Now if you were not able to finish the game with culture, it happens, it should not but it can happen if they get feed, they have exceptionally good map etc. Sometime vas will simply not be completely defenceless.
You can simply brute force, >100 disciples will do the trick. You will need all 30% damage upgrade + AC+ PFP and ideally a progen with shield regen, if you got GU do the extra mile and get FU will probably be an extra 10%-15% dps, you can also add halcyon for extra dps, if the enemy have a sizeable fleet, you can add some guardians with repulse if they have a small fleet and the star bases isn’t well upgraded health wise, focus the sb first, if the sb already have maxed health upgrades attack the fleet first then the sb. Only push once your fleet supply is full or almost full!
Late game/ high eco game (both side getting sizeable feed):
Go for rapture carriers (fighter) repulse (called RCR) instead, advent always win the carrier war because of the rapture and repulse if you are way under fed compared to your opponent, Halcyon will allow you to win even if you have way less fighters, if you are winning the carrier fight Halcyons will not help that much.
Also put bombers on any capships (they are free fighter baits)
if you still have your starting progen it is mostly useless at this point, and you rather have the xp on the rapture so send your progen go do something else. (a lvl 7 rapture is basically one extra carrier every 3 carrier you have in the aura)
General advice points:
Your vets are more cost effective than their vas counterpart in vet/vet so you should ALWAYS have map control it is key to winning this matchup.
I did not put enough emphasis, but your culture is extremely strong vs vas and that how I win most of my AL vs VX fights. Your vas opponent will struggle and look everywhere for logistic slots that do not exist.
VX has no good aoe so in general advent ships are strong against them.
Your titan main purpose in this matchup (if you ever get it) is to slow the star bases down, I’m not kidding, it is insanely useful for that and will give you a lot more space to maneuver your RCR around.
A mid game VR will be extremely hard to push on so win before that (the VR PJI is the real problem), if you can’t, feed your ally a kostura, if you have no vas ally, good luck.
If you are sequential agro make sure to keep vets on the other side of your opponent to prevent any migrators ruining your ally day it’s the main matchup where true agro and sequential plays very differently.
You should almost always fight with pfp and in allied culture past early game. (it’s like a 50-70% damage difference on snipeables between allied culture and enemy) You have the strongest culture you have no excuses for not fighting in your culture.
If hangar/carriers and mines are already researched it can be useful to deal with a solo migrator going to your hw if you don’t want to send your fleet after it.
Fleet compositions:
VX-AL counter
On the left the vasari fleet, on the right what counters it.
Vets-Vets optional malice
LF-LF
LRF-Vets
LRF+FLAK – LF+vets optional malice on LRF
Late game:
Capship/titan fleet +carrier – RCR (Rapture carrier (fighters) repulse) titan if needed, you can add radiances if VL titan, starting vets also fit well into the composition.
RCR will deal with pretty much anything to be honest, Vasari can only deal with repulse with carriers and your carrier are much stronger and there isn’t much they can do about it, in 5s if you don’t have shared gates your Vasari opponent might just go attack someone else while you slowly push so having a strongest fleet might not be enough to win.
Agro vs TL early phase
Alright you scouted a TL opponent, but that is not enough! The capship and stating fleet comp is important.
Standard play I will reference in the next sections 1 fleet supply of vets then 2 civics culture then 2nd fleet supply (counter what they have) while getting 3rd civic and pfp, the standard advent build.
Akkan + vets: Tough match up, play standard, hit pfp and kill them. (you should hit pfp before they reach militia) you will have a hard time keeping map control unless they turtle, if they turtle you should get map control and eco up.
Akkan + small vets + LF/tech: best answer by TL in my opinion, you need to be super careful with your progen, you have to get map control early and effectively, snipe anything you can, keep neutral control and try to prevent them from teching up higher, eventually you should overwhelm but you need to be very confident in your micro.
Marza + vets: Tough match up, be extremely careful with your progen, the bigger the fleets the better for you, so don’t be aggressive, try to hit a good pfp timing until then use the defender advantage to make any push for your opponent extremely costly. If you ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up and the Marza reach lvl 6 you need two radiances +1.5 per Dunnov (round down) , yes two to counter a single Marza and good micro, alternatively if you have repulse researched already it can also do the trick. So yeah, do not let it reach lvl 6 by simply not being aggressive, taking way better fight. Scouting is essential and do not bother with map control if they have similar vets amount. (If they are very pushy get 2nd mil for repair)
Marza + Lf : They are a noob or trolling, just play standard and win.
Corsev +LF + Vets: Another tough match up but it is VERY different, but not too hard, to fight the
Corsev you need 1-2 Radiances and possibly repulse depending how much time you have. Contrary to the popular advice I recommend doubling down and getting a lot of vets around 50 ish, it will force your opponent to stay at home until they build 1-2 hangar per planets, then send half your vets to an ally or other opponents and the vets you keep are only there to snipe planet bombers or easy reinforcement, the moment you scout Corsev you lvl up your forward roid hp, and get turrets (you will need 5 mil labs protected by turrets), eventually you get synergy + repulse until then do not build fleet, also send your progen to the middle of the map its not useful until you want to fight WHICH YOU WANT TO AVOID AT ALL COST UNTIL YOU ARE READY. You will quickly realise something, Corsev will take a year to bomb out your hw, your vets will pick off at reinforcement even more if they transition into lrms to take out your turrets and your turrets with synergy will prevent them to touch your labs / factory, PFP(it a little ambitious so it depend on map or feed for pfp), Repulse illums (you have 5 mil labs remember) radiance progen (bring it back for the fight) will deal with the Corsev + Lf easily, you just need to get there in one piece. You never want to fight close to the Corsev with vets. Just do not panic. (Do not focus the capship at any point)
Corsev but really close: if you spawned really close to your opponent and manage to snipe their constructor on their roid, you can get a winning position easily! Start spamming LF with all your might send your vets to kill constructors, bomb the roid with the progen and your LF should easily win the fight, sniped the boarded ships of course and you should be able to win that fight easily as the corsev will only be level one or higher lvl with no fleet. If there is almost no fleet just make sure you don’t get boarded.
Dunnov: I never seen it by someone half decent but just send your progen on a colonisation mission and take map control. Otherwise play standard.
Sova: They are a noob or trolling, just play standard and win, also extremely easy to snipe.
Kol: Either a noob or a certain Russian trolling, in doubt, flame them in chat and do not forget to get a radiance at some point before they reach lvl 6 otherwise play standard.
Marza x2 + vets: Hopefully the capship bug will be fixed by the time I am done writing this, either way get map control and fight at either the end of your 1rst, 2nd fleet supply or a pfp timing and you should krush it easily. Your progen is so vulnerable I recommend going 2nd military (for repair of course before civic)
Corsev + Dunnov + feed: You can not beat this, take map control with vets, harass opponents, enemy eco, maybe relocate or turtle as hard as you can, maybe sb up? You will never be able to fight it, you will need a lot more feed to ever push that than they need. You would need 3-4 radiance to fight it directly, either way the goal is the same as usual, get repulse to push the capship away from the fleet and make them believe in magic.
Agro vs TR early phase
I will just state the difference between TR and TL to save time and sanity.
Akkan + vets: You can get map control this time and be more aggressive (the vets won’t instantly lose you the game if you fall behind), try to hit PFP before savage thrill, if you do, fight on their side of the map and you should win on the spot.
Akkan + lf/tech: Though matchup they will not get vets in this case, so your vets will have more mobility, once again hit pfp before they get savage thrill and fight them on their side.
Marza + vets: easier matchup than TL, your progen is more vulnerable when defending the early pushes but on the other hand you will do better when pushing. Like everything with TR get pfp before they get savage thrill and fight them on their side of the map. Marza 6 is way less dangerous than the TL Marza 6, it can be dealt with only one radiance or even none if you are confident.
Corsev: Hardest matchup of all of them, the semi turtle of vs TL will not work. Finish your first fleet supply of vets to keep them at home then get a radiance asap, fight with progen radiance vets then disciples, don’t slip up on the micro or you lose on the spot. The micro is easier than TL because your radiance will actually catch the Corsev at some point, try to hit pfp and win or bust trying.
Corsev + Dunnov. Good news your vets will be more useful to snipe constructors/labs, bad news the moment they hit ST you lose. You will need 1-2 radiance, ideally 3 but you can’t afford it unless you get feed. Get enough vets to keep them at home until hangar then straight into LF and get pfp and try to win on disciple vet progen radiance. Repulse is always useful if you don’t think your pfp push will work / you ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up.
Agro vs TX mid/late game fleet compositions
I won’t explain every variation but here is some general fleet compositions you want to hit.
In general if they are TL avoid pushing unless you are way stronger.
if they are TR it’s the opposite, fight them on their side at all cost.
Early game:
Lf/vets will fight their tec counter side quite fine and will win vs low supply of flak/lrm, (malice on lrm).
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