Finite resources & value improvement plants

[Jmenschenfresser]

In the finite resource games I've played, I usually mine as normal for the first 1/4 to 1/3 of the game, and rush research on larger hulls, solar collectors and remote miners. I then build ships full of miners and mine the asteroids and planets in my allies territories. It is sort of risky after a good number of turns in that your miners will tend to be on the edges of your empire.

It forces you to keep expanding, and it frees up a lot of space for research and intel.

Although once I can remember having to send my Intergalactic KGB to blow up a star in an allies' system so as to gain a field to harvest.

The other thing is to build a monsterous number of storage facilities...so much so you out pace your resource procurement. That way when you actually run low, you are sitting on several million credits.

[Suicide Junkie]

When I played a finite resources game, I took religious (extremely useful for finite)
Every system had to have a nature shrine.
Given a nature shrine, 240KT of any resource can support one extractor indefinitely.
Adding a single ValueImprovement III to the Nature shrine doubles the number of extractors a planet can support indefinitely.