Unkn0wn-

As a more general note, you shouldn't go frenzy on the pirate bounty raising. At the start of the game, the pirate fleet is incredibly small and really easy to kill, so if someone puts money on you, you should consider just dealing with the pirates rather than starting a "bidding war". In addition to that, you should only put money on someone's head once the timer reaches 0:00, it'll be at 0, this way you can avoid a "bidding war" and thus have to spend less gold. Happy pi

The game's just about perfect for me on fast mode :). (Although I can occasionaly enjoy a "normal" game, when I have a lot more time that is)

I always go for the Akkan as my first ship, then about 3 Kols :). Akkan because it has colonisation, allows me to colonise planets a lot faster than having a colony frigate do it and this way I don't have to bother with colony frigates. ;) On top of that, it gets "Targetting uplink", which is a GREAT ability to support the fleet. Not to mention Armistice which is perfect if you're in trouble ;) Imho it's one of the better support ships and a perfect start-game unit as long