Ah I do so love using a faction's weapons against them. Unstable Photon Cannons f**ks with their shield AI so much which lets me strafe Gladiator Beams across their hull. Now just imagine. 6 of these Beams. And all equipped with the TachLance's special EMP lightning effect. Blows out weapons, engines, ship systems, everything. And then I just keep messing with their shields with the Photon Cannons and lazing an unshielded part of their hull with the Gladiators till they die. Even the Valkyrian Vaticans with their stupendous amount of guns and engines can only take 2 volleys from these Gladiators till everything is burned out. Also, Hawk III, pretty insane OP allowances and if, like me, you don't use missiles all that much, you can forego the ~10 missile slots all over it's hull and invest 70-80 OP into hullmods. Can't wait to find a Venator, though.
However, at one point my faction, the Council, did actually get pushed out of Exerelin. Annoyingly, stations that get captured are cleared of their weapon inventories. Thankfully, they are not cleared of their ship inventories. Annoyingly, the Omnifactory and Storage are still in orbit near a now-Valkyrian station. Thankfully, everyone became neutral when the Council left. Annoyingly, the Council came back with a vengeance and decided to take on the Junk Pirates, also incurring the wrath of the Lotus, Neutrino and Valkyrians in the process. Thankfully, I've leveled up enough to be able to take on most L4 fleets with the possible exception of the Neutrino and their damned Banshees. They're almost as annoying as the Halo Banshees. Damn missile spam.