Colonise like crazy - 27 systems (but only one had dilithium - Sol... Then research like crazy while the systems are building, well, buildings... then upgrade... while trying to hold by Romulan spies (first race to encounter... who subjugated the Ferengi before first contact.)
then found two dilithium sources! woohoo!... colonise. hm, a klingon outpost two sectors away (no first contact).... 5 turns later, at war with the klingon empire (despite giving money like crazy as a pacifying tactic) who destroyed both colonies....
and they kept sending statements like "you are not worthy of even destroying"... wtf? then why are you destroying my colonies?!
ah well. Backuped up a bit, just let it, keep on rolling.
Klingons issue non-agression treaty - Rejected... you made that bed, you dirty klingons, you'll lie in it.
finally get enough systems production up to build ships (I modified the dil refinery for +4 instead of +1), nope, they got destroyed.
finally, got to tech 10... and started spamming ships like mad... then made them regret killing my colonies! I'd have been quite agreeable if they hadn't done that! Remember Omicron! Remember Spica!
then went for the romulans, because they kept sabotaging me (while saying things like 'we applaud your sabotage of the klingons)
when I had enough (read: probably about 100+ ships), with plenty of troop transports for building outposts to extend range... then I broke alliance with romulans... conventiently trapping the bulk of their forces when they lost range. Also, they'd parked 30 troop transports in orbit of one system, but since I have outposts in EVERY system... they just got pinballed by the automatic retreat while the outposts destroyed a few every battle.Then they retreated to empty space and couldn't move... so I quite maliciously sent *just* enough ships to destroy them in two turns (my ships have cloak - the first thing I changed when I installed and went to change the ships)
Meanwhile, I started parking like, 36 ships (two taskforces) over every romulan system, and building outposts in the gaps between areas (they subjugated the cardassians too... I know they'd have tried that with me but I my territory was big enough...
and then I found out how many systems they had (I ignored that before)... 39! 39 Star Systems! 4 from the Ferengi, 3 from the Cardies! and its not fair, they had 8 Dilithium systems! And they're the ones with the extra dilithium source via Singularity plants! that's one-per-system with +2!
Did everything I could for about fifty turns to egg them into declaring war. Nothin.
Final battle of the game, over romulus: 500+ defiants versus 16 Warbirds, 20-30 other command ships, lots of strikes, and 70+ fast attack.
that one took AAAAAAAGES to play out! OR get going, I should say. almost killed the game.
And yes, the names of the ships in my fleet reached all the way to -D or -E... after reaching Z...
, while there are other campuses for computing, construction, energy, propulsion, weapons... Biotech's got the Genesis Research Lab, but I'd change the name a bit (since that project was, through the magical properties of Trilithium, illegal!)
