PBW Musts:
1. Create and upload your empire correctly and select a ship set that is not a double.
2. Emergency build colony ships straight away.
3. Always train your ships and fleets.
4. Always research cloak detection tech (usually hyper optics) and launch a sat in every system with it.
5. Always trade for colony techs if you can.
6. Allies are good - your own systems are better!
7. Storms hide enemy ships: destroy storms in your systems, but hide in the enemies'.
8. Never invade Russia in Winter
Just some of the things I live by in PBW.
Lv'e seen some checklists floating around the forum before. It would be good for for your guide Atrocities, if we had these sort of lists for each stage that you identified.