[mac5732]

In addition to SJ and Fyron's advice, research mines as soon as possible, they are good for initial defense while you expand, build some colony ships and then build a space base or 2, this way you can build colony ships and yet build some military ships as well, Some players like to build killer sats in beginning to go with the mines, also you want to research point defense within you lst 15 turns or so as they are good against missle attacks, so if you build mines, weapon platforms and maybe some killer sats in beginning, this should keep you in there for awhhile, but against human player you'll have to adjust to researching ships at least to BC's along with propulsion. good luck

just some ideas mac