Ugh. I just played my first game where I ended up getting the crap kicked out of me. Playing a multiplayer match with a friend on a huge twin elliptical map as the Empire. There were 10 systems in my starting area between two wormholes. Counting my homeworld, there were 4 terran planets, 2 oceans, a decent amount of arid/tundra and a buttload of arctic, lava, barren and gas giants. To make things worse there were a large number of extreme negative anomalies that made trying to settle on any of these planets a huge pain for my happiness rating.
My home system was medium terran, large gas methane, small lava. Oh and the lava world was toxic.
I ended up screwing myself over by not making a beeline for casimir effect and trying to wipe out the cravers south-west of me when I had the chance. His planets couldn't possible have been any worse than mine and for awhile I had him beaten by 3-1 in military strength, but couldn't get to him.
My only saving grace was my missile boats that made any enemy fleet pay dearly when they came after me. I could exploit suicide missile boats for cheap, but my economy wasn't strong enough to be able to take the fight to the enemy.
