[MegaTrain]

A lot of great comments concerning my initial post, so allow me to follow up:

I'll concede that the primary advantage of Ancient Race is strongest at the beginning of the game and decreases over the game years, but I think that the effect of that advantage carries across the entire game.

My point is that knowing the full-galaxy layout at the beginning of the game allows you to establish empire borders that greatly benefit your own empire. Let's say you determine (by looking for ~100% medium planets) that another player has a home system a few systems away, let's say 6 systems in between (ME-1-2-3-4-5-6-Him). With normal exploration and colonization at average rates (in all directions), you would expect each empire to expand equally, meet in the middle, and each claim the 3 systems on the side closest to their home. But the first thing I'm going to do is to send colonizer ships with armed escort straight to system #5 above (I'll leave him the extra system closest to home), and claim an extra 2 systems that would otherwise not be mine. How is he going to know I'm far away from home? He simply encounters an already colonized system and (unless he's looking for a fight) establishes his empire border in system #6.

In all the games I've played so far (Ancient Race or not), the key has been Location, Location, Location. The race who is able to expand into the most systems early, build up the most research planets, mining planets, and construction planets has a HUGE advantage for the entire game. Assuming 2 equally-experienced players, the player with the most research and resources is going to win nearly every time.

Other comments:[*]"Don't get Ancient Race, just become a partner with one." Yeah, you first of all have to FIND another player/AI that is Ancient Race, and then you have to convince them to Partner with you (with much less advantage for them). You're talking turn 30+, probably more like turn 50. By that time, empire borders are already established, you've already explored most of the nearby systems anyway. [*]Someone mentioned that it's not that easy to find enemy homeworlds, because there are too many candidates. Not true. Go to the planets screen, sort first by Mineral %, then sort by size (the planet icon column). Scroll down to the medium planets, and then down to about 110%. They key is that homeworlds have all 3 attributes around 100%. Random planets with ~100 on minerals will usually have 26% on radioactives or 134% on organics, a dead giveaway that it's not a homeworld. If you have several planets in the same system or nearby systems of the same type/atmosphere, then that's stronger evidence of a homeworld system. [*]Balance. I know this game is all about balance, but nobody has put forward a really convincing case that "Tech XX" is a much better spending of 1000 pts. I'm sure you guys have your opinions, why don't you tell me what you'd rather spend your 1000 pts on? Maybe you'll convince me....