The mistake was building your labs before you made your fleet.  Invest the funds into your fleet then start building the labs since the funds required will grow back as soon as the colonization cap gets built.

There's a pretty good rule of thumb for this.

If you're playing quick start, this shouldn't be a problem. Scout, figure out what each planet is. Build your two labs, and send about five frigs (2 lf, 2 scout, 1 colonizer) to the roid, and a couple frigs with your colonizer. This shouldn't be a problem because you get so much money early on with quickstart

I don't advise double colinization if you're not playing quick start. Get your roid first, everything else second. No quick start is the old fashioned method of sins. Quick start is all you'll see online anymore (damn't).

The coloniser and turret ploy just seems to me to be an exploit based on poor AI.  If the game had proper planetary defences for neutrals, it might be improved.

I've rarely encountered quickstart..?  I'm not keen on it though.

I already know all of those tricks in Darvin3's excellent post (which should be stickied or put in a guide), plus a few more tricks that aren't in there and that I'm not divulging at the moment, ha ha.  Now, whether I can execute said tricks at this juncture is another story, heh....

Anyway.  I never play quckstart.  That must be my problem - that plus a little rust.

Perhaps Amish and/or Darvin3 could write up some guildelines related to quickstart, if they are someday motivated?

I play Entrenchment exclusively myself, I just do it on normal start.  And when I play alone or in a private game with friends, normal speed too.  I don't like a tactical clickfest.

I can give you a few good rules of thumb about quick start. The days of yore when no quick start was the norm is when I was at my best.

Not to make a duh statement, but quickstart essentially puts you about at where you would be at 10 minutes into the game. That's the way I see it. The mines are built. You already have a cap factory.  You already have two scouts. Your homewold is at full population.

If you want to play quick start, here's my general rule of thumb:

1. You can build up to two labs of your choice ( i prefer 2 logistical so I can tech for ice/lava )

2. You should start queing up a mix of light frigs and scouts (or a colonizing frig or two if you don't pick the colonizing cap) until you max out the first tier of units. If you're playing on normal this means ballpark 5-10 light frigs, 10-20 scouts. Depends on play style.

3.I personally like to send my colonizing cap to colonize the roid because of colonizing bonuses. That's just me. The go two way method works. I think there are times when most people would but I won't, but yet other times when I would, but other people wouldn't.

4. Quickstart makes it so much easier to get the game going. Keep the amount that you tech early low (keep it to ice/lava, and maybe some basic military upgrades), but keep the fleet large. The bigger and faster it grows, the faster you'll expand and get a bigger going.

5. Watch some replays. Astax has a post in the multiplayer section of the forum with a couple of replays. Those should help you get a feel for what the game currently plays out like. Check out the one what is a scout rush. That was especially fun.

Kharma, did you used to play on all fast? because on all normal you will have less resources with which to colonize

Darvin3, are you sure about this?  If so, I stand corrected, but I could have always sworn that the faster game speeds increase movement speed.  If this is the case, then the amount of micro is NOT the same, because you have far less time to micro everything you need to micro when everything is moving faster.

So what's the story here?