[DirectorTsaarx]

Crystal Armor is useful, too, since the armor regenerates shield points when the armor takes damage.

The Solar Collector facility is most useful in finite resources games, since it only depends on the star(s) in the system, and doesn't reduce the resources on the planet.

As for happiness: build an Urban Pacification Center in every system. (You have to research Psychology, which gives you Applied Political Science; researching Applied Political Science will then give you the Urban Pac Center).

Sheer weight of numbers helps with ground troops; also, try using two types of ground troops. One type uses the "Ground Cannons" found under Troop Weapons. The other type uses the "Small Cluster Bomb" found under Smaller Weapons tech area. Ground Cannon fires every round, for decent damage; Small Cluster Bomb fires once every two rounds for high damage.