[Taqwus]

One bit -- you may need to claim more systems to have an equal number of Gas Giants as another player has rock planets, which gives you a much larger border to defend.

If you don't have the same number of planets, you have fewer colonies on which to build, meaning fewer facilities/ships being built at one time. Hrm.

I'd still pick Gas Giant, but it might be more feasible to pull off a really, really hyper-growth start with Rock or Ice.

Seconded that luck plays a HUGE part of the early game -- started up a 3-planet medium-tech high-race-pts game in a Large galaxy, something like 11-12 AIs allegedly evenly distributed... and within 10 turns (literally) I'd conquered two neutrals [one of whom started in one of my systems], one of whom had Rock and the other Ice. Getting all three colonization techs that fast, plus the extra pop, basically provided a most likely insurmountable head start (well, except by even more outrageous luck, or sudden attack by cloaked fleets with Tectonic Bombs who bypass the minefields...).

And in a mid-tech game, you can reach Mines pretty quickly -- and if you're in a "dead-end" system near a fellow with mines, he can cut you off from the rest of the galaxy ASAP. Done that to AIs, heh...

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-- The thing that goes bump in the night