Greetings all,

I'm a new player to Sins.  Glad I found the game!  I've managed about 4 games so far, usually with other noob buddies or against AI.  Starting to find Normal AI pretty easy to deal with.  That being said, I'm not pro, and I don't plan on dedicating much time to being pro.  I take the games pretty casually and all for fun.  I actually quit SC2 because it was too serious.

Enough biography.  Just because I'm playing at a noob level doesn't mean I can't enjoy a LITTLE overall strategy to my builds.

I'm going to be hosting an 8 player free-for-all game, all humans.  I was wondering if you had any tips on surviving such massive games.  I've experimented with two major builds, one is economic and focuses on putting trade ports everywhere to make myself have an unbreakable economy by late-mid game.  The other is more aggressive, pumping out LRM frigates quickly and attacking players early on.

A problem I seem to have is that in the 8+ player maps, the systems are so damn huge, being aggressive early on takes a lot out of you.  Also, even if you can lock down 1 player with your aggression, there's still the other 6 that you're vulnerable against.  Is an economic turtle build preferrable in such a huge game until you can field a disgusting army of 1500+ supply?

Also as noobs we all seem to be addicted to masses of carriers and bombers.  Like 100+ bombers.  How many flak frigates do you think I would need to counter that?

EDIT: Any general comments on approaching a game like this would be great.  I'm really looking forward to it!  We have no secret alliances going in, so I imagine it will be filled with pirates and backstabbing.  It might be fun to turtle, and research the Diplomacy tree to launch pirate attacks while seeming friendly with Pacts.  Maybe.  Pirate attacks are sort of pitiful, unless the missions you can give them make them awesomer.