[dogscoff]

Personally, with that all that good ship building stuff already done I'd branch out into something diffrent.

Construction is good - build some maintenance free units rather than ships, but I would be building up a plantary assault force - troops and landing ships to steal the AI's planets. If you spend some time and resources on this you should be able to take entire systems from an AI just a few turns after finding their space.

I would also considr Intel - gt yourself up to level 2 or 3 and build up a big intel output. Most AIs don't develop much intel until later and you can steal ships / planets from them quickly and safely with a good intel base bhind you.

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There is an exception to every rule. Including this one.