And you said the AI is easy?

[spacefan]

I was playing on low bonus in that game and lost. But I agree with the Weapons Platform. I started another game with propulsion experts and heavy attack/defense bonusses, and built platforms early and then expanded.

I did find the Norak early. But I managed to take a bunch of their planets and then got them to surrender, which gave me Rock Colonies. That really helped my economy. But I'm in 3rd place with pretty good tech and resources (80k minerals/turn), battleships, combat support and sensors researched for all those bonuses, as well as point defense, which has helped me tremendously against the #1 race who is using tons of missile ships.

I'm fightning a war on two fronts though. I was allied with the #2 race for a long time, with their ships all over my territory, and then they declared war and wreaked havoc, so now I'm working on them mainly, and I have 2 warp points where I am defending #1.

Its a lot of fun, so I guess giving them a bonus makes a better game. It reminds me of an epic run of SE2 I had a long time ago where I ended up defending my empire at one warp point with almost 200 ships, and having battles in tactical mode that took days.