[Nitram Draw]

JB,
I had the same confusion over the order and compatibility of different mods.
I decided to use the TDM mod as the base mod because they did not add anything to the game that was not already in there. The TDM Mod pack affects a lot of areas in the standard races and gives a few new races. In the readme file they explain exactly what areas they tweaked on the races.
Other mods, God Emperors racemod and Sun Devils angermod come to mind, change specialized areas of the AI. If they change an area that is unmodified by an insatlled patch then the order you install them is not important. When both mods change the same file you have to make a choice.
The ones that you really need to pay attention to are mods that add new techs, weapons, etc. You may overwrite a file that is needed to make them work if you add mods in the wrong order.
Read the readme files carefully and try them out. Most of them are great.