I just won a Huge/Occasional Stars/Abundant everything else/Normal Tech/Trading on/Maso difficulty game with Drath.

Personally I found them to be great fun because they 'force' you to play differently then you otherwise would. I had to forgo colony rush and instead get a smaller number of planets up to speed faster. I had to ship colonists around, I had to go 'Good ethics' early. I then had to trade techs to start wars as soon as possible, and as soon as you start wars going your back in the black. Then I had to take out a neighbour fast before I fell to far behind tech wise. It was a challenge, but a fun one.

The thing I am liking most about TA now, is that you have to vary your play for the race you choose. If your getting frustrated with the Drath, it might be because your your trying to play them with tactics for another race.

Next I want to try Drath/Obscene with tech trading off. I expect to loose hard, but eventually I will get there.

I agree with this issue. I find myself typically using my ability points in a similar manner (econ, research, creativity, etc). There is some variation, but I just have a hard time using many (half) of the abilities. They are weak.

There was another thread that discussed the inability of the computer to use free points. This frustrates me because when setting up the races, I either do 1 of 2 things:

(1) I set them up like I would play them. This leads to every race having some kind of econ ability and creativity. And overall being very similar. Not sayign they are identical, just similar trends. So why have the +30 econ, when every race gets +30 econ?

(2) I set them up unique to their race (ie Drengin get military abilities). The negative is that I can't help but think that I am undermining them because ultimately I am not selecting what I perceive to be the best abilities.

I really hope Stardock (1) rebalances the abilities and (2) lets the AI select abilities.

I find the pop increase you get at 100% approval is very useful to try and have on those new planets just to get you started off.

I agree that the best thing about TA is the way it forces us to learn new strategies. I enjoyed that when playing the new Iconians. I had to re-think my standard approach, and I had a blast playing my first Iconian game.

The slow colonizing and glacial economic recovery with the Drath is an entirely different challenge, and not as much fun (for me). I'm just not a big fan of economic micro-management. Also, I might have gimped my current game by not going for the population bonus with the initial ability points, only choosing Universalist party for that small benefit. I thought I'd try the Drath "as designed" to see how it worked.

Well, I'll finish the current game before moving on, then come back to the Drath later when I'm feeling masochistic. Loupdinour's early war strategy sounds interesting. I'm normally a "quiet early game/pounce later" player too, but the Drath might require something different. Probably not the best race for turtling.

I agree that it is a slow start with the drath, but you really don't need to try and compensate for the slow population growth by spending ability points on population growth. Rather than try to balance a race out with the ability points I usually further emphasize the strengths already possessed. I actually boost that Drath diplomacy rating even further.

When I play with slow research, few habitable planets in a large map (and no tech-trading and difficulty two steps higher than normal)) I can still grab a good number of planets (say five or so) early on. It is still usually more than the AI, but yes my econ will die for a bit.

-Set taxes low enough that approval is 100% (as mentioned) above
-Set production to 100%
-Right away research the space militarization branch to get recruitment centers. This also has the benefit of increasing your ship production speed as well.
-Don't rush buy anything other than your first factory (depends on planetary bonuses of course).
-Make sure you build moral boosting buildings to keep approval high.
-When recruiting centres are available put them to the top of the build list on every planet.
-Depending on how things go, I usually try to research trade and so on pretty early as well. Not only does it let you begin trading and getting more cash, but it also gives you a +10 diplomacy. And once you get some trade routes started the races you are trading with will look upon you better and will be less likely to attack you.
-Even though everyone else might have a military before you, if your diplomacy is high enough then other races will be much less likely to attach you. This is why it can be good to further strengthen the already strong diplomacy when you spend ability points.
-After population on your planets gets to a decent level you might well have less than negative 500 bc and still be losing money. I started raise the taxes back up to around 40-45% and this fixed things.
-I actually did not choose good ethics and went with neutral and still came out on top. this can also make you less likely to be attacked by evil folk I think.

I have done this a few times and it generally works pretty well. I have also found it useful to somtimes drop my production down to almost nothing to save up a few thousand bc and then buy an economic treaty from some rather promising looking race. (I try not to give a treaty in return because I anticipate becoming an economic powerhouse later on and don't want some other race benefitting from this). The higher your diplomacy the easier it is for youto do this affordably. These treaties can really add to your income.

I am no expert, but all of this might only work because of the settings I have selected (few habitable planets etc.) But, I think that this advantage might be someone balanced by having slower research (meaning it takes longer to get the tech you need to get cash).

-The moral of this story is use the Drath's diplomacy advantage and when selecting abilities you can further enhance this strenth.