Worst was probably the education I got in my first PBW game:
Things started off well enough, slow expansion, fairly early contact with my two neighbors. I made Trade & Research treaties with both, and continued expanding until I ran out of colonizable planets. My neighbors had a Partnership treaty and "Show allies score" was on, so I knew they were in 1st and 3rd to my 4th (of 4, no AIs). I notified 1st that I was planning to expel 3rd from a system we shared, then ordered 3rd out of the system. I expected 1st to be too busy holding off 2nd to assist his Partner.
I easily seized the two occupied planets in the disputed system. Immediately thereafter, I was shocked to see 1st's Stealth Armored fleet decloak in one of my home systems. I managed to destroy his fleet, but not before one world was glassed and two others Plague Bombed. I spent the rest of the game on the defensive, scrambling to research countermeasures and steadily losing worlds. I would have been taken out sooner had 1st finished me off himself instead of letting 3rd "liberate" the system I'd started the war in.
Best would be my second PBW game, 8 humans and 4 AIs. Intense diplomatic juggling, staying neutral in two intrahuman wars while I ground down the Piundon AI in a third. First time I ever convinced an AI to surrender. Spent most of the game climbing in rank by mopping up the wreckage left by the leaders, who were fielding the largest and most technologically advanced fleets I'd ever seen. When we finally decided that the war-weary survivors were ready to declare galactic peace, I'd climbed to a 3rd place finish. That game also included a fleet engagement that had so many seekers launched that my screensaver kicked in on four consecutive turns of the combat replay.
