[eagleton]

Sadly, it was not as hard to beat the AI of SE III even without stellar manipulation. My main strategy was to colonize as much as possible from the beginning, so I had more ressources, and to wait until they attacked me. Then I would attack their planets, minimizing ship-to-ship battles. I also developed much more intelligence then my opponents to destroy their economic basis. Most of the time, they could not resist that. Often, they had much better ships in the beginning, but I soon had more ressources, what counted in the end. The only opponents that really stood a chance were those who had half of the maintenance costs and so produced
much more ships than others.