Many thanks Froggy Bloody decent of you old chap (In an exaggerated British accent) And a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you, the wife and your tadpoles!!

well said with a good british accent   

The backstory was interesting. I found some errors in it though and it is in need of some editing.

Page 5, Introduction: "You can choose from ten civilizations"
Should be twelve.

page 9: "An interstellar war unfolded between the Human-led Coalition, which included the Altarians, Torians, and Arceans, and the Drengin Alliance, which included the Drengin Empire, the Yor, the Drath, and the Thalan. Two civilizations, the Korx and the Iconians, remained neutral."
Incorrect. The Human-led Coalition also included the Altarians, Torians, Arceans and Iconians. The Drengin Alliance also included the Yor. Three civilizations, Korx, Drath and the Thalan, remained neutral throughout the war.

page 28, backstory: "In the same way that a map of the Earth becomes distorted when it is flat, the map of the galaxy becomes distorted when made flat."
page 87-91, The Backstory: Editing needed.

My suggestion is to get someone good at editing to go through the whole manual. And remove all the "Regarding the...".

Well odds are the pre-print is what went to press so it's probably too late. But I'm all over making updates to it. 

Not sure where the Drengin alliance stuff came from, didn't notice that (didn't write that as the Drath aren't part of that). 

I wouldn't change the "Regarding the.." in either case because it was intended to be that (I wrote the "regarding the.." portions.

It's showing as a two page side by side setup, but one side will be the first page(1) and the other will be the last(91). As I go further the correct page will go up as the last pages go down ei (2) & (90), then (3) & (89). I may just have to find the right settings, but I can still read it ok. Just thought it worth a mention.

Like Frogboy said, it's the preprint version. The opposing pages are like that because that's how the sheets will be printed and bound.

Is there a Beta 2B change log anywhere? I've rooted around a fair bit, not least b/c I'm wondering about what's new with the espionage system.

My last game was Beta 2 and I only needed 3 spies to get Low intel. Do I need more spies now, or did the "James Bond" thing mentioned elsewhere lead to a new requirement that we leave spies in place for X turns before getting intel?

I couldn't find a page in the manual explaining keyboard shortcuts. Is there plans to add that before release? I love all the kb shortcuts I can get.