Greets,

If you're playing against the AI, remember that they're expanding as well so you don't need to stop and fortify at two planets to survive. Get a couple of scouts auto-exploring first, then get your first (free) cap ship built. Once that's done you should have a good idea of your surroundings and the layout of the planets near you.

All thats left to do review the layout of the planets, and make a beeline for those that are suitable to form your front line and begin to make choke points (usually two on smaller maps). Once they're established, you're safe to work backwards towards your own home planet and begin fortifying your frontiers. The AI won't jump through those choke points unless they exterminate the colony first - at least not with anything thats a threat.

Keeping the pirates off you for the first few runs is pretty easy. Just bribe away. Once you know where their base is, you know where they're going to attack you (the closest planet to their base which should be one of your fortified front line planets by this point).

Aim higher Two or three planets isn't really enough to get a decent economy going. If you don't go get them, the AI will. Try creating those choke points by grabbing 5-6 planets right off the bat on a small map. It should put you in good standing and then allow you to settle down a bit after initial expansion and start hitting that research tree in a serious way.

Not perfect, but it should get you started winning/surviving against the AI.

Good luck mate,
Mopy

::Edit - Yes for turning off pirates. Update to the latest patch and you can turn them off

"Aim higher Two or three planets isn't really enough to get a decent economy going"

Depends on the size of the map he's playing. The smaller maps just don't let you get much of an economy rolling, it's more a rush.

Anyhow, as Mopes said, play a game or three without pirates, once you're used to it it's much easier to control who they raid. Don't forget to buy the first level of infrastructure on any new planets, they'll cost you money until you improve it (desert and terran actually require a couple levels before they start generating income).

If you must build defensive structures, hanger bays are far more cost effective than turrents, fighters are usefull against most ships, bombers for Cap ships so when in doubt build fighters (they can delay the fight long enough for your defensive forces to come in and save the planet). Most people end up with 2-3 hangers, a few repair and the rest turrents when it's fully decked out, I tend to build them in that order.

Try those tips and see if that doesn't get you going in the right order.

In my opinion, the mid and late-game depends on which faction you are playing but the early-game is similar...when I played against 5 hard AIs as a Vasari on an medium-sized map the following early-game-strategy leaded to a victory:
Early game is all about speed...so do everything as fast as possible.

1. upgrade home planet
2. buy 200 crystal on the black market
2. build a crystal extractor and the Capital Ship facility
3. build 2 scouts and send him on exploration
4. build the remaining extractors
5. build the colonize capital ship
6. build a military lab research the long-range frigate and the first hull- or shield improvement
7. when your capital ship is ready fly to the nearest asteroid , kill the siege frigate, colonize it, kill the other frigate, upgrade the asteroid
8. during this time start to build long range frigates (you need ~5 of them)
9. at this time you should know who is the nearest enemy and put some money on his head before the first pirate raid starts
10. while the pirates attack his homeplanet you should attack the Asteroid near him, if they attack his Asteroid you should attack the factories on his homeplanet...the rest of his forces shouldn't be a problem
11. keep building frigates and upgrade fleet capacity once as soon as it is necessary
12. within half an hour the first enemy should be finished and his planets yours
13. then directly rush the next enemy...you should have the military and economical advantage at this point to be victorious.
14. after the second enemy is down concentrate on your economy and research...you should win the game

I know this won't work everytime, perhaps you have to improvise a bit but in every case you have to be agressive to win:

- expand fast, when you stand still the enemy will outnumber you
- Use the black market and the pirates to get resources and to hold your enemys down - Perhaps you have to build some torrents and hangars for defense, but don't spend too much on defense
- avoid a 2 frontline war, keep the front as small as possible untill you are ready
- upgrade your planets as soon as possible, time is money
- avoid being attacked by pirates, they only slow you down
- be cautious of big fleets of siege frigates, kill them they are really dangerous

That are some of the experiences I had to learn the hard way^^ It is not the only way to win, find the strategy that works best for you and your prefered faction.