Opening Strategy

Starting position will greatly affect what strategy should be used. In general terms, I prefer to go to 100% spending immediately and check all systems within reasonable range. If a good planet is found (15+) then I'll build or purchase a colony ship (purchase only if there's local competition). With the right setup it's sometimes possible to wait until you see to opposition approach a planet, then buy a col-ship (with about 400 million colonists) and get there 1 turn ahead of them. That wastes their time and minimises your cost.

I don't sacrifice my economy to get extra planets initially but rather use a mid-game war or cultural influence to take what I want. Since the initial AI focus is on planets you can usually get a head start seizing resources instead, which in the long term gives a great advantage.

I prefer 100% spending, 100% military production. Colonizers get cranked out generally in about 3-4 turns. The pace can be maintained for a significant amount of time (about 2 years or so I believe), with very little economic penalty. When I use the +speed trait, even though the AI knows where the yellow planets are, I can see where their colonizers are headed, and beat em to their destination I loved leaving the Torians with only 1 star system to colonize LOL

~SDC~

I like to play with tight cluster on large or huge galaixies. That way you hardly ever have a colony ship diarrhoea since everyone is busy colonising their own cluster and AI colony ships cannot reach you anyway because of limited range (i know some people were saying AI is cheating when it comes to colony ship range, but IMO it doesnt)

-TLA-Russian