I missed the ZYW by two turns! I think I went too fast on the lease buying and had a total economic colapse after I had taken 5 planets w/ 5 transports. The AI had colonized too many planets
With the ZYWs, I end on April 8th of year zero, but I've found that extending by 1-4 turns will raise my score just a bit more, if I'm still researching and not below -500bc. I'm not sure how you lasted almost a full year without going into debt. I dont use focus at all, but maybe other people do. it will definitely slow down your research though. Here is generally how my games go:
turn 1 - lease buy lab on a bonus tile, research Xeno Research
turn 2 - leas buy 2nd lab, research Advanded Computing & 1st Minitiarization tech
turn 3 - lease buy Tech Capital, research Impulse Drive
turn 4 - upgrade lab, research Space Militiraization
turn 5 - upgrade 2nd lab, research Spore
turn 6 - start buying economic structures, finish Spore
turn 7 until end of game - more economic structures, buy first spore ship, and start whacking the enemy, research diplomatic techs and sell tech to minor civs to stay out of the red economically, get Interstellar Republic, Star Democracy, Xeno Entertainment, etc, to up morale, taxes, and therefore economy score.
I usually have my space miner next to the enemy homeworld by the time I research Spore, so I can upgrade it right there and kill it immediately. Let me know if you have any questions about more specifics. Other people will probably chime in too.
For alignment, just set it to the evilest possible before you start the game.
Sentient species taste better...
