Need advice after firs multiplayer PBEM

[Jubala]

Basically, what you want to do is spread like locust. Grab as many systems as possible as soon as possible. Just colonize one or two planets/system to get a legitimate hold on it and if possible place a few mines over the other planets to keep others out. Or mine the warp points. To do this build a bunch of Base Space Yards asap to build mines and cheap escort scouts capable of laying mines while your homeplanet concentrates on colony ships as they get built faster that way. Use the bases for colony ships as well as soon as you have a decent number of scouts out there.