I do not bother with the disciples they die way to fast for me. give me 5 or 5 mother ships and there isn't a pirate fleet out there that can stop them.

I'm not claiming anything in stone yet, but I've recently found that Advent's Illuminator can be a devastating ship when spammed.

The Illuminator has 3 powerful beam weapons (1 in front, and 1 on each side). If you spam a bunch of these guys and send them into a swarm of enemy ships then you will very likely see the enemy fleet evaporate. It's very important to send your Illuminators into the middle of the enemy fleet to take advantage of all 3 beam weapons.

I've only tested Illuminator spamming against newbies so far, not against veterans, but so far it has worked very well.

P.S. I totally skip building disciples all together. Go straight to the illuminators. It requires some tricky micromanaging but Illuminator spamming can take place very early in the game if done correctly.

The problem with Illuminators is that they are geared towards combatting Support/Heavy Cruiser and even Capital ships. The Advent don't really have anything that is geared towards destroying basic Combat Frigates, and other Long Range Attack Frigates - not until Destra Crusaders.

Well, you have Fighter Strikecraft... but Flak Frigates in SoaSE are imo almost too effective against Fighter Strikecraft. Some abilities used in conjunction with Flak Frigates can 100% negate Strike Craft entirely until they are destroyed. Kortul Devastators jamming strikecraft with an escort of Sentinels, for instance.

For the first 20-30 minutes, they're pretty vulnerable, and are forced to defend alot, without any real weapon. But I still consider them ridiculously ovepowered after that period. Yes, even more overpowered than massed Subverters.

That is true, but how often does the enemy attack within 20-30 minutes. Not very often.

  

  

Hence their overimbaerdnes.