[Menschenfresser]

Here's my favorite:

I believe crew insurrection is 50,000 points. I like to turn this on for what ever empire I am up against, put it on repeat, and just snag as many ships turn after turn. In my present game I have 170,000 intel points so I can have two crew insurrections per turn and still run some counter intel.

Even large empires can't replace them fast enough. Use the ships you steal to cause as much damage before the enemy catches up to them. Most of the ones I end up with are in orbit. They rarely Last more than a couple turns. I am presently doing this against a much larger empire than myself...it really drains them.

War of attrition. It may not be faster, but half the fun is routing your opponents in a creative manner.