i find they have a very strong economy in the early game, so i usually rush for the economy techs. Upgrading the population on my homeworld first and buying 200 crystal so i can start building a capital shipyard right away and a crystal extractor, a colonizer and 2 scouts then i focus on my economy with one civilan research station (to upgrade my terran homeworld population again, get better metal extraction and cheaper infrastructure which reduces the cost of shipyards and extactors) then i build second research station for the trade port upgrade and then i focus on building about 3 of them, if my enemy is not growing too strong. Otherwise i start building some ships so that ill have something to fight with if he comes (and if he does i just use the great economy i just build up to outnumber his rush).

LRM frigates.

what army i get depends on my enemy, altough i will usually prefer to have atleast 10-20 LRM's and some robotic cruisers for repair duties.

early game:

-build extractors
-build a few scouts --> scout as far as possible, ID choke points and enemy planets
-build cap yard
-pop upgrade
-build marza (rsch radiation and raze planet)
-build build 5-6 cobalts
-build 2 civ labs
-roll out towards the enemy which seems to be closest/weakest (advent are good for early targets)
-hit asteroids along the way, exp up the marza
-build colony ship, own smaller conquered real estate, on step to enemy planet (1 jump preferably)
-start harassing the planet (TARGET ECON: extractors with cobalts, population with marza)
-on that conquered fallback position develop resources, build shipyard and rsch/build repair bay, military lab--> keep feeding that assault (ff any cap ships u come across, if marza loses shields and is down some hp, fall back to repair bay, if necessary)

while doing all this gradually tech resources refinement and trade port.. first military tech should be towards lrm's.. i usually go towards ballistic upgrades for marza (all cap ships), which i think also improves the cobalts. try researching the robotic cruisers and flaks.. for frigs, flaks can take a lot of dmg.. feed these units to your enemies system.

it's been working for me.. in ffa and ai games.. be mindful of ur flank.. keep developing pop and econ and slowing build reserve force on ur prime and expansion systems.

having said that, the game can be played so many ways.. this is just an idea that ive seen some success with..

my thinking comes any rts ive played, esp starcraft: disrupt ur enemies econ and production, especially in early game, and u will have major advantage over them the entire way.. unless they genius strategists.. then u fukt