Lesser races

Races expand and Baisicly the only ones that count toward victory. Minor Races stay on one planet, don't count toward victory.

Ive seen minor races expand. Minor races are a bit more timid and dont play a role in bigger things. They dont get to vote on the UN but they still seem to take part in diplomacy like a major race.

Minor Races do not colonize, they can invade in rar ocations, and they can culture flip you if your not carful, they will also trade, and build starbase. But they do not colonize.

well unless this was changed in a recent patch, they did colonize quite some..the Dark Yor colonized 3 planets in one of my games

What are the name of lesser races? Are they in the 9 opponents you can choose or they are placed randomly in the game?

Minor Races are placed randomly at start and can appear during the course of the game also. You can see your known minors on the Minor Races tab of the foreign policy screen.

I've only encountered 3 unique minors in the 5 or 6 games I've played so far. The Caranoids showed up only once, and the Dark Yor and Snathi (squirrels!) have appeared in almost every game I've played.

I'm still waiting for a Crimson Force Field reference to come up when dealing with one of them. Thus far, I'm quite dissappointed, lol

I haven't noticed much if any colonization from the minor races, but that's more than likely because of my level. Maybe a little more aggressive colonization at lower levels, or even just a seperate slider for minor race AI would be nice. I doubt I'd have to worry so much about getting pummelled by cute little space squirells as much as I would from Drengin. Then again, you never know ...

On one of my games, the Snathi had several troop transports. I never saw them in action, but I'm wondering if they go through full-on invasion.

The minor races will take over planets. One grip I have is you cannot see who the minor races are at war with or allied to. I like using minor races and usually keep the stongest one around as an ally.