I agree with most of these points, especially the one about having retreat on the first menu! I disagree strongly with the idea of autocast retreat though. Lets not take away all requirements for attention during battle k?
[quote who="GenuineD" reply="11" id="1894822"] Opponent response would be phasing to another well and then coming back.[/quote] You make that sound like a bad thing. If I need to scramble ships to a certain planet it's usually to hold the opponent up while the real cavalry arrives. Getting them to phase out, then phase back, seems to fit that bill. Even better if it's free (except for AM cost).
I'm in agreeance with Annatar mostly. And I definitely agree with "skip the skirmishers". One other thing to consider, for an alternate (slightly easier IMO) start is to hold off building your first lab for a few seconds and see if you get lucky on the random planet draw. If you have a couple of Asteroids first up, then you can hold off on the 2x Civ labs for Artic/Volcanic colonisation, and instead drop 1x Military labs and research Assailants straight off the bat. Of
Wonderful read.
