In my last game I was in the middle of the map playing Terrans but surrounded closely on all sides by the Yor, Drath, Drengin, and Korx. I managed to get 3 planets...Mars (PQ4), PQ5 and a PQ8 weeee. No bonus tiles anywhere. Large Universe, Crippling difficulty, no tech trade.

So I rushed. Went straight for planetary invasion and beam weapons. Cleaned the Drath out of the universe before they managed to get more than a couple defenders built. Just barely finished my war with them before I went broke, and had to struggle to get my economy back in shape. By then I was back to being a contender, and after allying with the Torians and Thalans, I attacked and destroyed the Drengin after a long bloody war, and then proceeded to mop up the Yor (Thalans had killed the Korx after the Fundamentalists took over most of their empire). By then I had a little over half the galaxy under my control, and it was just mop up work after that. Won with an influence victory, which is how all my conquest games end unless I turn influence victory off.

I like bad starts, they present a challenge

it's certainly possible to win in these situations. it just isn't guaranteed. sometimes i prefer a game where i have a distinct disadvantage. the AI is good, but certainly not perfect. as long as you can get large hulls and the best defenses quickly, and you wage your wars slowly and cautiously, it's not too difficult to win from the corner. as nightboy pointed out, it's much easier to defend from the corner. i'm currently beating the drengin to a pulp. 1 large hull + 3 droid sentries + 2 nano rippers + 3 warp drive 5s = lots of dead monkeys. i just gotta pull the damaged ships out of front-line combat so they can repair. my low-industry planets are producing cheap fighters to serve as cannon fodder. my manufacturing capital is building medium class ships right now. once i establish a stronger beach head in the drengin's space, i'll need warships more evenly spread out. i may chose to fight this war in two parts.

as is often the case, the drengin are the largest military power in this game. a great deal of the military is soaked up defending thier vast empire. usually i play on loose clusters, but i wanted a less advantageous start so i picked tight clusters.

the drengin were completely alone in the largest single cluster, so not only do they have their typical military emphasis, but they've got an uncommonly powerful economic-industrial arm to back it up. but it's still only a series of AI algorithms. i declared war a few turns after the drengin attacked the torians, which was stupid. the torians are across the galaxy and had a moderate military about equal to mine (but i only own 7 planets). so i waited a few weeks while their offense fleets migrated across the galaxy before i struck. not only did i hit them while they were weaker than they should have been, but i also gained popularity for doing it, since it appears to the other AI that i was going to war on behalf of the torians. at least, i think they look at it that way. i've managed to wipe out a major chunk of their fleet and cut them down to my size on the graphs with only 9 capital ships. i've lost dozens of fighers for sure, but at about 170 to produce they're cheaper than my long-distance constructors. the drengin ships were all outfitted with shields, and they're only just coming out with armored ships now, which helped my initial advantage (i went around destroying as much as i could).

the drath are next, and will be a cake walk. but that's when i expect to start building animosity among the rest of the AI players. however having absorbed the drengin, i expect that i'll be unstoppable at that point. i was able to keep a technological edge early because a PQ 17 planet had a precursor library (+700% research bonus that occurs in the example mod provided with 1.2) AND 2 precusor labs. rebuilding the ruins of the drengin empire will be costly, and i'll probably fall behind technologically and need to retool my strategy.

but don't get me wrong. i've lost more than a few games playing this way. that's why i think it's fun.

I like to play on gigantic maps and sometimes that really gets me in troble with tight clusters of stars. A lot of times if i'm stuck and surrounded/cornered, i rush up the influence tech line and pick off a number of planets that way until i have the military base to fight with the other guys. Last time that happened i took over all of the Terran Alliance and half of the Torians before i even bothered with fighting (and then only cause i was kinda bored) =P

one thing i like abt starting in a corner (besides good defense) is that i can get very profitable trade routes established between me and the civ(s) at the opposite corner of the galaxy.

Another key to the corner start is to monopolize as many resources as you can. Since everyone else is building colony ships, you can switch to constructors and grab up a lot of resources. I've had starts where i grabbed around 30-40% of the resources. This is especially true if there is a cluster of stars all the AI(s) are sending colony ships to. It keeps them busy. Even if there's only a few planets open, the AIs tend to stay in the colony rush mode.

For me this is the what makes me restart, if i get the corner and i have no easy opponent to take, and i don't get any decent resources.

The Game I should of Lost

Gigantic everything on rare got stuck in the corner with Earth & Mars, the closet system with habitable planets was already in the hands of the Altarins.

After building a couple of military bases to increase range I managed to get within 1 MP of a class ten when the Korx took it.

First break I got was A UP vote for new PQ 15 planet went to the Yor. Unfortunately for the Yor Brindle II was in an until now dead system next me. Threw everything into research and got planetary invasion in ten turns and took it from the Yor and since they were on the far side of the Galaxy there was noting they could do about it.

Started running freighters to the Altarians to keep them from looking at me like I was a free lunch.

Built 5 cargo hull with 8 parsec range MK 1 Laser and as many engines as I could stick on it and sent them out.

The Krox were becoming hostile so I built three Military bases to increase my range into their space and moved my limited forces there. Once they declared war on me I then took the closet planet to me a class 12.

It them became an exercise in evading their fleets and engaging only their escorted transports.

My second break is when the Thalan gave up and gave me Thala which located above the Korx its was able to crank out a medium every 2 turns. I then used Thala and its fleet of mediums to attack the Korx rear areas. During this attack I located a Korx Fleet way point and picked off their ship one by one building up my hit points.

I also managed to take another PQ 13 planet that was located close to the Dregin who were doing very little except building huge fleets of ships.

Mean while I was doing my best to buy off the Dregin who where in a corner to my left just below the Korx I could not handle both of them at once.

Unfortunate while I had a frendly relationship with them they still declared war on me do to their military straight there is no way I would be able to hold the 2 planets I had taken from the Korx.

Then I got my third break my forces had found a percursor corvette on the first planet I had taken from the Korx and to my shock It wasn't one corvette it was 67 of them. I took a major hit to my maintenance budget going from 50 BC a turn to - 200.

I then sent them all at the Dregin and once the dust had settled I had lost every one them and the Dregin were acting like a naughty boy caught raiding the cookie jar.

That was the turning point.

I then formed alliance with the Altarians and the Iconians then it was just one long brutal fight taking out Korx, Dregin and the Yor everyone else had already be eliminated by the evil races.