I like Kronac's Cross.
cool, will do. thx.
The thing to remember with it, is that if you get arctic colonization quickly you can more or less secure a little area of 4 planets for yourself. There are three entrances to your little empire, but the pirates always use the same one, and you can more or less guess which enemy is going to use which side of the other two.
Game works best 2v2 as an ally is in the direction of one of your flanks, so you just have two planets to watch out for. Set a nifty capital combo at the pirate-entrance, and your main fleet towards the other enemy, and you are set for turtling and research and whatever.
Lacks metal though.
Only downside is that the map can be over quickly if you try to do it. I said i use it for testing things, i usually test against the pirates because everyone else is dead=P
