Sins Of A Solar Empire Capital Ship Guide: TEC Capital Ships

The TEC, being the most technologically inept race in Sins Of A Solar Empire, don't get as many fancy tricks as the Vasari and the Advent. Shields are barely-there, providing no more protection than a set of lacy underwear, and the weapons are the sci-fi equivalent of a blunderbuss. With Frigates and Cruisers, the TEC make up for this advantage with numbers and with their economy. But capital ships are, well, capital ships - it usually isn't a good idea to build them to a budget.

You'd expect then, that TEC capital ships would be a little weak. In fact, they're not. Although they remain no more advanced than a ham sandwich, they make up for it with massive slabs of good-old-fashioned armor and big, nasty broadside batteries ready to unleash a torrent of lead into anything that goes near. Generally, this means you need to be careful not to over-extend TEC capital ships, as though their hitpoints will rebuild itself, you'll generally not want to get too far away from a repair cruiser. On the other hand, TEC's capital ships are great at toe-to-toe slugfests. If you want to field a "ship of the line" then you need look no further.

The Kol Battleship is the de-facto general of the TEC fleet, bristling with a variety of weapons in a variety of arcs and protected with slab upon slab of thick armor. The Kol is a good choice for a first capital ship, as it excels at clearing pirates out of planets so that they can be peacefully settled, and it is also good at tacking on large fleets of enemy vessels in close-range combat. It is a battleship, after all - if you don't have Kol in the thick of the fight, then you're doing something wrong.

The Kol's special abilities veer towards directly damaging enemy vessels. It comes equipped with a Rail Gun ability which will do a base of 300 damage at first level and up to 800 damage at third level, which is a fairly serious amount. This ability also has a mere six second cool-down, so it can be chain-fired. On the downside, the rail gun does not penetrate shields in any way. It is best used to finish off enemies which have already lost shields. The Kol's other combat ability is Flak Burst, which covers a radius around the cool with flak, doing serious damage to enemy strike-craft. This is incredibly useful, particularly against the Advent, which will probably be fielding fighter squadrons before you field flak frigates.

Besides those abilities, the Kol gets an Adaptive Forcefield which reduces damage done to the ship and reduces the chance that Vasari phase missiles will penetrate the shield. Fully upgraded, this force-field can be used for as long as you have the anti-matter, as its cooldown will be shorter than the shield's duration. Finally, the Kol's ultimate ability is Finest Hour - an insane combat buff. Finest Hour increases the hull and shield regeneration rates of the ship, decreases cooldown on all weapons, and adds a splash damage effect to the Kol's autocannons. This is very useful in the middle of a large battle that appears to be going against you.