Well, I totally agree with Lonemessiah. Difference is I'd say it ain't cheesy... its downright cheating. Sorry mate, but you gotta deal with what the game gives ya. And for the quicksaves, yeah they're nice, but don't use them just to get the edge. Personally I use them in case my cat rips the power off my PC >.< (Yeah, it happened....). If you make a tactical mistake you should just live with it and cope with it. Playing online you won't stand a chance either if ya keep resorting to Q-saves. Just a friendly notice, no offence meant. Otherwise your tactics are quite allright, depending on peoples style of play ofc. In online its proporably best to go for some serious military capability ASAP, but for AI games I usually stick with some fast pased Tech, then sell out the "crappy" techs to the other races, and if they get mad at me you just hand them some for free. At that point it will be fairly easy to expand as soon as ya got Advanced Support and Ion Drive. But that is of course a matter of playstyle.