The neutral challenge

[Zanthis]

Started a Neutral Challenge using Mod Pack 1.01 and SunDevil's(?) political mod. Set systems to 254 and started a large mid-life cluster w/ max enemies (no neutrals) at max difficult (no bonus tho) and added EA, Darloks and Sergetti. My race is rock/hydrogen. So I start the game and look down to see where I begin. Very top left corner of the map (doh!). I have only 2 WPs (North and South). The N WP looks like it leads to a dead-end system (guessing) in the very top left corner (more so than me). My home planet is one space south of this WP BTW.

I'm thinking, doh, guess I'm gonna want to start over. Then I look at my planets and see:

Homeworld:
hydrogen/medium/good 97/96/100

Other Rock Planets:
hydrogen/huge/mild 59/149/150
hydrogen/medium/mild 116/21/107
hydrogen/small/good 130/136/81
carbon/large/optimal 105/13/47
carbon/medium/mild 113/50/43
carbon/tiny/good 50/41/137
none/small/unpleasant 27/138/64

Gas Giant:
carbon/huge/unpleasant 36/94/32

Ice Planets (both moons around the huge planets in the system):
none/tiny/good 54/103/94
none/tiny/unpleasant 71/12/25

Argh! I just can't bail on a start like that! So I get going, cranking out research fac. all over the place. I've got all the breathable planets colonized on turn 12 (2401.2) when, WTF, first contact!!! *cry* And from the N WP, only one move from my homeworld. I have no offensive units of any kind and no offensive tech researched. Thankfully they (the Phong) pulled back.