I'm not a pro but I start by scouting for any nearby asteroid planets, you can take them with just a colony ship and a well placed turret. don't increase fleet capacity until your sure you need it against the enemy. try not to expand farther than you can defend and for the love of god try not to get into a war on more than one front. pirates are useful, take the opportunity to pay them off to attack the AI. course I normally only play against AI on single player, multiplayer is a little hard for me to do as most of the time my connection sucks.

lol I remember you sir we had that brawl the other night when you came face to face with the Eradica =]  I thought that game was very fun I look forward to playing with you again sir

Yes good fights - thank you