Thanks!

Are you serious? or being sarcastic?

You click where it says "external link"

https://davescomputertips.com/galactic-civilizations-iii-how-to-win-part-i/

I read the guide part 1

He is right that the early game 'is' the game.

I find the AI and early game is very much like a 'dam' effect - When i was struggling with the game at first, the AI is quietly building up to a point where the dam bursts and it comes down to me with fleets i simply have no answer for, and i am like WFT? Restart.

AI appearing with invincible fleets..... this is the problem for new players.

As soon as i found ways to build up quicker, now the AI is suddenly very different, it is not assembling those large invincible fleets, its behavior is totally different .... i don't know what the AI is doing but i am often bored because there is no challenge at all?

It's certainly *one* way to win.

Personally, I find a couple of different strategies work better:

1. Don't buy ships. They're massively expensive. Buy planetary improvements instead; they last forever, and are cheap (300 a pop for the lvl1)
2. Research ASAP whichever tech gives you the first Morale building. That's typically Xeno Commerce.
3. Put your production wheel at 45/45/10 P/R/M.  That gets the maximum available of prod and research without wasting any points to coersion (inefficiency)
4. Put your slider all the way to 100% military.
5. Buy, one each round, the following, in the following order:
1. TWO Research buildings
2. Either a Research Building (if you can get them in a triangle arrangment, or next to another adjacency bonus-giver) or a Factory (if not)
3. One Factory
4. By now, you should have Xeno Commerce. Buy a Entertainment Center.
5. One or Two more factories
6.  Research Interstellar Travel next, to get the Hyperdrive Plus engine.
7. Your very first ship should be a basic colony ship, the D1,R1 described.
8. Your next ship should be a colony ship with the Hyperdrive Plus and 2 Environmental Supports on it.
9. Next ship is a sensor boat. Cargo Hull, 3 Hyperdrive Plus, 2 Environmental Support, and 2 or 3 (if you have the space) Interstellar Sensors.

I then prefer to go for the HyperDrive Specialization and Planetary Improvement techs, followed by Ion Drive and Universal Translator.

I don't get a 2nd colony ship until about round 8 this way, but having bought all those improvements on my homeworld, I still have 4000+ credits to use either buying more improvements on my next 1 or 2 new worlds and/or getting Mercenaries.   Those improvements then help me churn out ships far faster than any strategy that buys ships and has to build improvements.  That is, by turn 20, I'm producing a nice, fast, good-range colony ship from my Homeworld every 4-5 turns or so, barely enough time to keep my population up.

If you're playing Mercenaries, and finding the Bazaar doesn't give you access to a nice mercenary sensor boat, I tend to rush-buy the sensor boat from #9, using that turn's production to build another factory.

The building rush gives you huge bonuses fast, plus gets you up to 100% morale within 5 turns. That's key to keeping your Homeworld in optimal production state.

I tend to go for speed over absolute range on Sensor Boats, since speed scales linearly, and sensor range sub-linearly.  That is, I'd rather than 3 Hyperdrive Plus (giving a speed of 7 total) and 2 Interstellar Sensors (sensor range 5 total), with sufficient range to be useful.  Plus, HDs are 40% less expensive than IS.  Per turn, a ship with 3 HD + 2 IS sweeps out an area 15% greater than one with 2 HD and 3 IS.  And, of course, the former costs 10% less than the latter.  Less cost, more area swept.   You really don't want to put large numbers of anything but Sensor Arrays on a ship - the other two sensors are underpowered and expensive.

Here's a short comparison for a base-model sensor boat, using a Cargo Hull with no capacity bonuses (space=90):

So, the most efficient, useful, and cost-effective ones, IMHO, are the 3/2/2 configuration, followed by the 3/1/3 configuration.

You can't both Building Rush and Ship Rush, because you waste an enormous amount of production that way (upwards of 50% for 5+ turns), even if you set the wheel to 50/50/0 Research/Wealth/Prod.  Plus, that strategy will put you in the pauper's house fast.

Finally, which Ideology to go, and which traits to buy first, is debatable.  I used to get the Free Constructors or Free Colony ship, but I now find it's better to to get the 150 Research Points to buy something expensive like Ion Drive or Life Support in 1 turn. The free Trader is great for getting money going early on, and it reduces the belligerence of that race. The Adjacent Diplomatic Penalty remover is also nice to keep neighbors happy. Or the +10% income keep you out of the red longer.