Master Belisarius, your Tessellate are awesome!

[Hunpecked]

Two factors that really seem to help the Tessellate in the long run are their high construction rate and low maintenance. Unfortunately their low aggression makes them vulnerable early in the game, i.e. before they develop the Talisman. In my current game against 5 of the top AIs from Deathmatch 3, I stumbled on the Tessellate home system early on. They're still around as of turn 89, but the early loss of three well-developed systems (including home) has severely stunted their development.

In addition, the poor Tessellate share another shortcoming with their lemming-ish AI brothers: they cheerfully plow through mined warp points again and again with insufficient minesweeper escort. In my experience the Aquilaeans appear to be marginally better at mine warfare, but none of the AIs I've played are really very good at it.