Jumping in at the deep end

[Jtownsend]

Ok, a few more questions if folks are bored enough to answer -

1. An emergency build 11 colony ships - wise? These will have to be 3 engines only with my 120 construction, afaik.

2. Early research - I understand I want minelayers for the near sides of warp points? And there is a tech bonus on turn 1? What might I want to spend that on? My ideal fleet "shape" from what I've read, is destroyers/light cruisers with direct fire weapons and some PDC. How do I get there? I'm sorry to be a bit RTFF, but I'm not getting that great a grasp of the tech tree even with future techs made visible with the game mechanics.

3. Early facility builds - is there sort of a basic rote for the 1-5 facility colonies and then another basic rote for larger, wealthier colonies?

I likely have to start today, and I've been working too much to do any reading or playing I'm sure I'll pick it all up, but I'd rather get clobbered as little as possible in the interim. Thanks for the help thus far.