First piece of advice: Don't bother with Gauss Rail Gun, especially not as the first ability. It is an antimatter hog, and is not very effective thanks to Shield Mitigation. Instead, Adaptive Forcefield is where you should put your points. It blocks a decent amount of damage, uses little antimatter and at level 3 has almost 100% up time.
Second piece of advice: Don't build the Kol first. Its not that great of a ship, especially early game. The Sova has more DPS [Thanks to Strike Craft], and the Akkan will allow you to Colonise and not waste supply building a colony frigate. If you level the Akkan up to 6, it also becomes godly. Armistice will allow you to retreat from any battle at any time you wish, avoid Argonev BRBs if you use them fast enough and basically make sure your capital ships will live to fight another day. In addition the Ion Bolt Ability on the Akkan is amazing, especially in long fights, as with 2 or more Akkans you can basically permanently disable an enemy Capital ship for an entire fight. Targetting uplink is also alright, but I'm not sure if I'd count it as amazing. Its where you should put your points after the first level of Colonise when Ion bolt and Armistice are unavailable. The Corsev I believe is also decent thanks to its passive, and its Boarding Party ability will allow you to steal those neutral ships to help build your fleet early game. I don't see any abilities the Corsev has other than its passive being that great late game however.
Third piece of advice: Not sure if others will agree with me on this, but get the hull upgrades before the Laser ones. Lasers only affect some of your ships, and the slight increase to DPS is nothing compared to the large increase in hull and regeneration that effects all your ships and structures.
Fourth piece of Advice: Planetary defences against the AI IMO are best done with 2 Repair Platforms, 2 Hangar Defences and as many Gauss Cannons as you can put down near each. Bunch them up a lot too - AI ships will always go fight your defences before bombing, unless they send in Siege Frigates - which you should order your hangar defences to take care of ASAP whist your Gauss engage frigates, cruisers and Capital ships. Make sure you have at least 1 fighter squadron to take on enemy bombers. The Repair Platforms will allow such a defence to hold out against a mid sized enemy fleet indefinitely if you keep replacing anything that dies. Its relatively cheap, and very effective. You could make a more impassable defence with Starbases and Hangar defences, however that is far more expensive, and is taking money away from your fleet.
Fifth piece of Advice: Try to expand faster. Generally 1 Capital Ship and 8 Light Frigates will take on any unowned planetary defence - even Terran or Desert - with the Capital Ship still alive. Thanks to this, you only need a small fleet to go around and colonise half the system in a short time. Against human players this can be risky, as the money you put into upgrading your planets they'll put into making a nasty fleet, however the AI generally won't rush you until mid game, so you can just expand, get a good economy, then win a war of attrition against them.
Sixth piece of Advice: Get a Titan sooner. Rather than getting to tier 7 and having not even researched the first level of the Titan, try to get one out sooner. They level around half the speed that Capital Ships do, but they are extremely effective in a battlefield, and the Ankylon in particular is brilliant with a fleet. Get its shield ability and Disruption Matrix for the most part. They are quite effective AOE abilities. The shield, at level 4, can protect your fleet from 87% or so of incoming damage. Disruption matrix stops your enemies from casting abilities whilst also damaging them.
Answer to question regarding Black Market Offer prices: I do not believe it works against AI. The AI will buy and sell metal and crystal, but it seems to do it directly to the Black market, bypassing you entirely - even if your price is lower. How I believe it works in multiplayer is that you can put up those resources, and when purchasing metal or crystal, instead of it showing the black market price the game will show your price [If you are the lowest price], and any player who purchases your resources will have the credits they spent doing so delivered to you rather than to the black market. In Single Player, don't bother with it. I don't think it works.
Seventh piece of Advice: When engaging large enemy forces, try to keep your ships in formation behind your Capital ship until the fight has begun. Hopefully the AI will auto-target your capital ship - which is far more durable than your frigates, especially with Adaptive Forcefield. This means that your frigates won't just die instantly, and you won't lose their DPS within the first 20 seconds of a fight. Forcing your fleet to jump in formation can help with this, as capital ships are slow and will generally be left behind, whilst the rest of your fleet is slaughtered without them. If your capital ship gets too damaged [I generally wait for the "Has been heavily damaged" message in small scale fights like the one at 13:50 in your second video], jump it out of the gravity well. If you know its not going to make it, have any ship that is about to die fly straight past the enemy. Why? Their ships will all turn around to face the target that is now behind them. In doing so, they open themselves up to being vulnerable once your dying ship is dead. They will have to turn around a full 180 degrees if you've done this right to re-engage the rest of your fleet. Weapons on the back or sides of ships generally [Read: Sova and Akkan have more effective Side weapons. Not sure about other ships. Check which side it turns to to shoot from.] are weaker than the front weapons, so you will deal superior DPS to the enemy whilst they are turning, whilst taking less damage yourself.
Eight piece of Advice: Three ships you want ASAP in a TEC fleet are the Dunov, the Hoshiko and the Cielo. The Cielo can actually wait, but its good to have. I wouldn't get the Dunov as your first Capital ship - see my second piece of advice for this - but it is a good mid game capital ship. It has all round great abilities. Shield Restore is the one you will use the most though, probably followed by EMP. Shield Restore will keep your ships in the fight far longer than they would be usually by restoring their shields if they drop too low. The Hoshiko is a must have. It will repair the ships in your fleet, allowing them to last far longer in any fight. Your heavy cruisers that were dying against the pirates in video 2? They'd probably last 2-3 times as long, let alone your capital ships. Just make sure you keep the Hoshikos away from the enemies targetting. What you'll use the Cielos for is "Designate Target". It provides a great damage bonus against a single target in the enemy fleet. Use it, then focus fire that ship and it will die fast. I believe it also has an ability that boost shield regen for a bit.
Ninth piece of Advice: When focus firing ships, focus fire the weaker ones with high DPS before the stronger ones with lower DPS. The Cutthroats? Yeah, they're tough. Lots of health. However, Pillagers [Might have the ship wrong, just check the HP and damage and find the lowest HP highest damage ship] deal some decent DPS, and have less health than Cutthroats. Taking them out will lower the overall damage your fleet is receiving far faster than trying to down a cutthroat.
Tenth piece of Advice: Largely optional, but it can make you play a lot better. Don't bother trying to get cinematic views of your ship fights. Its wasting time that you could spend building more ships, managing your ships, researching technologies or anything else. You won't lose out to bad - you can save the recording of your game before you quit, and watch that afterwards to get your cinematic camera angles. What it will mean is that your fleets will probably win more often, you'll probably be more technologically advanced then your enemies and you'll generally have larger fleets with better ships.
Eleventh piece of Advice: Don't use visual indicators to judge how damaged your ship is. Use the HP numbers. I noticed in your third video you stated that your ships needed repairs, likely because they were smoking. They start smoking the second they get so much as a scratch on their hull, once their shields are down. The capital ship you highlighted was at 98% or 99% health. That does not need repairs. That needs to get into the fight ASAP to save your planets. Also, pay more attention to your ships levelling up. Your capital ship had a ability and command point for about 10-15 minutes or more there, and you sent it through about 2 fights without upgrading that. Abilities are your friend, and strikecraft can be some great extra DPS for your fleet. Don't neglect them.
Twelfth piece of Advice: When you build a Diplomatic Cruiser, sitting it in your own gravity well is the worst thing you can do. It will do literally nothing there. Your AI allies will have sent plenty and they will be giving you bonuses. Do the same to them. Send any diplomatic cruisers you make to allied planets. This will boost relations with them - allowing you to propose pacts to them which will boost the strength of both your fleets - as well as provide bonuses to income, population and build speed for your ally, allowing them to get an economic edge faster.
Thirteenth piece of Advice: "Should I make fighters or Bombers? I don't really know". That depends on your goals. Spamming bombers will give you a lot of extra DPS against enemy frigates, cruisers and Capitals, and en mass can be extremely effective at taking out anything. Fighters are more of a shield for your fleet. They will attack enemy fighters and bombers, stopping them from damaging your ships. Personally I will generally go for a 60%-40% split of Fighters and Bombers respectively.
Fourteenth piece of Advice: Pay attention to the bars to the left and right of a planet when zoomed out. This is sparked by your "No planets are under siege" comment in Pt 4, when even when fully zoomed out it is clear to see that your Volcanic planet has a large fleet attacking it [Well, a small fleet, but technicalities!]. The left bar is your and your allies' ships, coloured the same colour as you and your ally. The more colour there is on the black bar, the more ships you have in the Gravity well. On the right side is the enemy's force bar. Similarly, it is coloured the colour of your enemies, and the more colour there is on the black the more enemies are in that gravity well. There is a third bar at the bottom of the planet. This depicts structures of your own, your allies and your enemies. Again, colour coded per player, and the more colour on the black bar the more structures you have there.
Fifteenth piece of advice: If you spot an undefended planet, bomb it. At about 5:30 on your fourth video you just fly right through the enemies desert planet, even though there is nothing there that could put up any sort of fight had you wanted to attack it. Attacking that planet will help you two fold: 1. It removes their income, and frees up another planet for you to colonise. 2. Since you are fighting AI, there is a 99% chance they will turn their entire fleet around, stop attacking your planet and come to defend their own the second you start to bomb their planet. This can be used to draw them away from your weakly defended worlds with a lone siege frigate, whilst you get your fleet into position to fight them. Doesn't work on human players though.
Fifteenth piece of Advice: Get starbases sooner. Upgraded Starbases are amazing offensively and defensively. Place them in your gravity well for defence, attack an enemy and build one at their planet whilst attacking for offence. They also have an upgrade which makes your planet unable to die until the Starbase is destroyed.
Sixteenth piece of Advice: Get Percherron Carriers faster. Whilst you're not entirely sure about strike craft, imma tell you now they are the muscle of your fleet. Get about 8 percherrons for a small fleet and you'll do significantly better in most fights. Spam Percherrons so you have about 50, then spam bombers on each, and send them against your enemies and their ships will die before they even get a shot off. I wouldn't do this though, as its expensive and kinda cheesing the game.
Answers to questions:
"Should I attack Orange with a Titan and Support Fleet?": Yes. Attack the Desert Planet. Odds are they will fall. However, first I'd get yourself a Dunov as well, and a few more Cobalts [Cheap, reliable DPS. Note how the AI has a ton of their equivilent for the Advent. You want to have as many if you can]. LRMs aren't bad, but your sending them in as the first attack wave when they are basically glass cannons and will die within seconds. Build more LRMs, but jump your fleet in in unison so that the LRMs are less likely to be targeted. Also, more Cielos and Hoshikos, and research Designate Target.
"Should I be paying the Pirates off all the time?": Depends. In your situation, yes if they are going to attack you, no if they are going to attack your allies. Your allies can hopefully handle themselves for a bit, but at this point the pirates will be reasonably strong, and you have a comparatively weak fleet for this stage of the game. Buff it up using the above advice. When talking the first 1 or 2 pirate raids, however, it is my policy to try and be the target. This means the pirates will attack you, and you can fight them with your capital ships, gaining experience and levels in the process. Late game... Pirates are evil, unless you have a decent fleet/decent defences. Pay them off unless you have filled the left bar I mentioned in advice 14 with your ships.
"Should I attack the Pirates?": NO! The pirates are about 10X stronger at their home base than they are when attacking you. If you want to attack the pirates, get your Titan, your current fleet, buff it up using the above advice, get some Ogrov Torpedo Cruisers [About 6 or 8], and make sure you have filled the left bar. Then attack. Jump the Ogrovs in after the rest of your fleet. Attack the pirate fleet with your fleet and use the Ogrovs to take down the structures.
How to salvage this match:
1. Research Starbases. Build one on your volcanic planet and asteroid planet that are next to Orange. Upgrade them a little [2 Weapons, 3 Hull]. These will hold the gravity well forever and for all eternity, especially if you put repair platforms next to them.
2. Buff up your fleet, then attack Orange's desert planet. That planet is undefended, has a free trade port and is amazing for Tactical slots. Take it, colonise it, then assess your situation as to whether you should attack other planets.
3. Research military techs. Get every hull, armour and damage upgrade up to tier 3 now. They will make your fleet a lot more effective.
4. Research Civilian techs. Get all the planet population boosts and metal/crystal extraction rate boosts. This will allow you to get resources faster and build more ships faster. Also, research trade ports.
5. Build trade ports. These things will give you a LOT of income fast if you build 1 per planet. Gets you a lot more ships a lot faster.
6. Build a balanced fleet and constantly assess orange and red's strength. If one of their planets looks like it might be easy to conquer, attack it. If they look like they'd kick your ass, hold back and defend against their next attack before making your move. Reading my above comments you should get a basic idea of TEC fleet synergy, though hopefully someone else will explain it better than I have. I'm running out of time so I can't explain it in full, however watch some other replays, read the tactics guides in non-Rebellion sections of this forum - they generally hold true for Rebellion as well - and start to design your fleet a bit better. It will make it a lot more effective.
I know I'll probably be a little misinformed with some things here, so could somebody please correct me if I'm wrong anywhere. Please note: We are talking SP ATM, so SP strategies should be talked about. Feel free to say "This wouldn't work in MP" though.
