Exodus hints

I've actually completed it now (Large galaxy, weak enemies, civilisation goal), so feel like I'm in the position to hand out some hints. Unfortunately this is more aimed at the middle and end game, since I can't remember the specifics of the first 50/100 months.

• I started out with a terran planet, but it might be worth trying for a volcanic one since you can get so much plutonium and minerals from them.
• All planets should follow the same basic structure:
  
  • Two command centres (Just for safety reasons).
  • A trading centre. On a volcanic planet you can reach around 100MC a month per trading centre by selling minerals and plutonium.
  • A space port
  • At least two of each unit factory. This is an absolute minimum, but on average you shouldn't go above 5 as this is overkill.
  • Some mines if the planet is rich in minerals. How many you want to place is up to you, but on a volcanic planet somewhere around 10 is a nice number
  • (Fairly obviously) enough plutonium reactors. Make sure there is a border of 1 square around each reactor, to ensure they don't cause chain reactions if they blow up. Also only place farm land near them, to avoid expensive buildings getting destroyed (As well as your citizens :P)
  • Fill the rest of the surface with as many cities & farms as possible
  • A lunar battle base
  • Modify the laws so that selling plutonium is allowed. Yes it's illegal, but your citizens don't seem to care and the space guild fine is only 200MC (Mere peanuts when you get to the end of the game and are earning over 2000MC per month)
  • At least 10 airdef guns in orbit
• Exceptions for the above rules:
  
  • The first planet should concentrate on getting some defences, then build it up from there until it matches the above description.
  • Artificial planets should be used as mobile supply stations; cover the surface with as many unit factories as possible and you'll be able to colonise planets a lot quicker since you'll never run out of units to protect them with.
  • Don't be afraid of removing all 'defects' from the planets surface in order to fit as much as possible on it. However you may want to avoid this until you've got the necessary inventions to protect against crop failure, etc.
• Don't bother with alliances or trading with other species (Or at least I didn't). You can sell some of your transporters if you need some quick cash, but don't sell too many (i.e. keep at least 25). Once you get to the 'empire expansion' phase, I had 200 transporters, and this seemed a good amount to hold all the units needed to stock up new planets.
• At the start of the game, reduce the science budget to zero. You'll need all the money you can in order to get started quickly. Once you've got a few planets you can bump it back up to 30% and the inventions will start rolling in.
• Also once you're at that stage, investing in some new officers is a good idea. Skip the 'poor' ones (They're rated the same as the ones you start off with) and go straight onto the 200MC ones. The most imporant ones are for science and the battle general.
• Once you've got all the inventions you can safely reduce the science budget to zero.
• When looking to colonise planets, try and look for systems with the most volcanic planets available (Or failing that just systems with the most planets available). This way you won't have to travel around so much because all your planets will be in one place.
• Also make sure that you've got enough units to protect the new planet from your enemy. I'm not sure how I handled this with my first few planets, but in general taking 10 of each unit type from the planets with the most unit factories/units overall (To make sure they are back up to full supply quickly) and offloading them onto the new planet is a good idea. If you have planets whose primary purpose is supplying troops (e.g. your artificial planet(s)), then by all means take more units.
• Don't be too worried about running out of time. I only started my empire expansion phase at about month 180, and once I had 10 or so planets managed to expand at a rate of a new planet every three months. 1000MC is a good amount to set up a new planet with.
• Avoid combat; it takes too much time and resources compared to just claiming new planets. I'm not sure whether it was luck or something else, but I only got attacked by other races two or three times, and this helped a lot. Stay out of their way and they're likely to stay out of yours.
• However if you do get attacked with no hope of winning, and feel like cheating a bit, then load a save game from just before the attack (Assuming that you save regularly that is. If not then make sure that you do :P), and destroy the command centre(s) on the planet that's about to get attacked. If you're out of cash then collect some extra taxes from the planet. What will then happen is that the enemy will attack the planet as normal, but being stupid they will fail to realise the lack of the command centres, and so the planet will immediately be set free again for you to return to and re-claim without a fight.
• I built my artificial planet as soon as I could, and I'm certain that it helped even though I only converted it to a supply station later on. I also joined the space guild as soon as possible; then whenever I was attacked I was sent 20 free units.
• Surface combat hints:
  
  • Artillery can only fire forward, so make sure nothing gets behind them.
  • One strategy that seems to work for me is to make a wall of artillery at the same level as the lunar base, and place the gliders and infantry infront of it. Use the artillery/lunar base to destroy any artillery in range of your troops, and the artillery/gliders/infantry to destroy and gliders/infantry that come too close to your defences. Once all the mobile forces are out the way, use the lunar battle base to destroy the remaining artillery; you can send your mobile forces in if you want, but at least some of them will get destroyed so it's usually best to use the lunar base.
  • Never trust the computer to fight for you!
• Space combat hints:
  
  • Sorry, I'm no expert on this
  • However, make sure your ship is equipped with full shields, lasers, a good crew complement, etc.
  • Letting the computer take over the battle is probably a good idea, since they aren't terribly exciting

That's about all I can think of for now; enjoy :D