I will try to help. I use a custom race to make things easier for me. Make a custom race with good diplomatic skills, moral, economy, research, etc but thoughs are good ones to get ya going. Yes you want to grab planets, research the right stuff too. Also be a neutral civ first. Because no one loves you and no one wants you dead. So you can last longer. Its a little harder to get alliances well kinda of it depends but, build a small military slowly so evil races wont rape you for being weak, every one will will be neutral or more friendly with you. Trade with other races for techs. Open trade routes too that helps alot with relationships with other races. If a race likes you give them gifts it always helps experiment with this. Try with easier difficulty first and with medium to large map first too or the opposite like smaller to medium maps(i like bigger maps). If you see like a spot on a planet with boosts to research maybe you want that planet to be your research capital. Make sure your people are happy ie moral between 70-100% taxes have a role with that an over population too. Lower you money in the beginning to development its set at 65% of you cash flow drop it to to what ever you need to to make a profite but dont drop it below 50%. You can increase taxes in the beginning or lower them your choice but in the long run lower them. Makes your people happier and population growth increases. Put one to 2 farms on planets... here is a wierd thing though i will say sometime if there is a production boost for farms some reason my moral on that planet drops if i put a farm on those boost and even more so on my homeworld. If you dont know why moral is low on a planet keep it with 1 farm only it helps. Colonize world with classes 9-15... later on 16+. 8-5 are ok worlds. read the bonuses of building to get idea what they do. Also build galactic wonders buildings to. Look through the menus to learn new and easier ways to play the game. To the experts at this game i know this isnt the best describtion but its a good start. Hope this helps

Also star bases too they are helpful just try it out. Yes i am rambling. Kyle i swear to god if u bitch about this your dead. good luck sdevet.

If you want the game to be tougher, play on smaller galaxies. What I have found is that in larger games, the computer tends to feel less threatened by you and therefore is less aggressive. In smaller maps, everyone ends up cramped together, and the AI deals alot better with being aggressive.

Also, make sure you've set your difficulty higher. Disabling tech trade also makes the difficulty sky rocket as you can no longer use that bargaining chip for peoples favor!

Lastly, choose aggressive opponents, everyone has their preferred ones, I recommend something evil. I mean, they are evil after all.

Anywho, have fun.

Put in several good races and play evil, or vice versa

Try not to play against the Terrans or the Thalans, as they both suck very much. And lastly, the Iconians, Korx and Drath are something of a wild card, they can be really weak, or really powerfull.

This is not true as of 1.3. Frogboy put alot of work into the Terran alliance AI, so they now play a much better game. As the Iconian Refuge, Thalans and Drath r subsets of this AI, they too r much better now.

I would up the difficulty. I'm familiar with the genre, too, and I played my first game at Normal and thought it sucked. Above Normal the artificial intelligence gets better and better, which makes for much more interesting games. At Normal it kind of feels like you are playing against space retards.

Peace and warfare tend to come in very long waves in GalCiv2, unlike "classic" Civ (where there's less time between war and peace). The computer players are more content with peace in GalCiv2, but when war does flare up (sometimes due to a random event), it can last for quite a long time.

Even if you aren't keen on peace for too long, take the time to build up your planets and starbases, as you may not get the chance later. Build your military up, or you'll become the target of choice. Also, be careful about declaring war; the computer players tend to form systems of alliances that can quickly pull you into a much larger war than you had anticipated.

As mentioned above, if you want a more exciting game you might want to try more crowded maps; I currently play on Large with seven opponents, and it's moderately crowded, with warfare breaking out regularly. Playing on a Medium map with nine opponents will be about as busy as anybody could care for.

Personally, I like that you arn't constantly being dragged into war. I use gifts of ships (and old, old techs) to induce other civs to go to war, thus lessening chance I'll be attacked, plus generally weakening my enemies.

You can also use that trick to make all of your opponents ships to go to the wrong side of their civ right before you attack.