General Questions

[LeTharg]

I'm sure you will get lots of answers to the other questions but here are my thoughts on a couple of them:

3. Invading planets. You need lots of troops (better troops help as well--your physical strength setting is important too). The defenders get militia based on population. You can test to see if you have enough troops in the simulator. On the other hand, you can often get the AI to surrender when they are whittled down sufficiently. Blockading their planets is effective for this. Then you get everything: research, planets, facilities, ships and units.

5. Yes the AI isn't perfect. But you will probably want to start playing with humans soon (Play By Web, PBW, seiv.pbw.cc is a great site for this) and these games are simultaneous so you cannot engage in tactical combat. If so, you may want to practise without tactical combat or even simultaneous mode.