If you didn't play GalCivI, I'd reccomend starting on the "Cakewalk" setting (don't worry, you won't have to submit the score if you don't want to )

Set the games parameters to small or tiny galaxy size, common stars, common planets, and fast tech. Try to maximize your spending in the area's you want to concentrate on by moving the spending sliders in the 3 categories (Social, Military, and Research) these control how much of your total income is spent in each of the 3 areas. You can also focus a particular planets spending by selecting the "target" icon in the upper right corner of the appropriate box on the top of the main planet screen.

In the start of the game (Colony Phase) I like to put total spending at 100%, and military spending at 100% (Research and Social at 0%). This will help you crank out colony ships quickly and beat the AI to the available planets.

Once there, you'll have to juggle the sliders depending on where you want to concentrate your spending (Military to crank out attacking or defending ships, Research to get more techs to trade with minors or other AI, or social to build planetary improvements)

BTW, you might want to also set the initial game to start with only one or two opposing players. The more you play, the better feel you'll have for the mechanics of the game and you'll be able to raise your difficulty level as you become more adept at dealing with the AI.

I can't overemphasize the effect that diplomacy ~can~ have when used well. You can bribe other races by gifting them techs or money or other things you have a surplus of (Ships, Wonders, etc.) until they get to "friendly" relations with you and you can sit back laugh as you bribe your "friends" to attack your "enemies".

I hope this helps, but I'd encourage you to also join an Empire as this can greatly enhance your enjoyment of the game.

When it comes to planet building there are two schools of thought:

1st: Well rounded planets that have a little bit of everything on them.

2nd: Specialty planets that focus on either industry, science, or taxes.

The first stratedgy works much better for smaller games and beginers. It works well and is pretty simple to keep straight. As you progress to larger maps and more difficult AI levels, the second method will become more useful.

As was mentioned before, try playing on a small map with only a few AIs, this will let you warm up to the game before get swamped with planet building and offense/defense concerns... BTW, welcome to the GalCiv2 club!

I suggest trying out a few different strategies for the start of the game and find something that works for you. Strategies need to be altered for the race bonus's you pick, alingment you like, type of win you play for, Map size and map settings .... etc...

Personally I like maps that'll let me get 12-40 planets in the colonizing phase so my suggestions prob aren't all that helpful if your playing smaller maps.

A few survey ships with good speed and range to get anomalies usually helps especially on larger maps. The anomalies give money off and on;; that can support an economy till the anomalies run out.

Be carefull about getting too much production and research capacity on your planets early on. You have to pay for all of that. I usually only buy factories and labs on +300% or +700% bonus tiles. I buy starports on my planets as I colonize them.

I think it is better to keep morale at 100% early on to get the population growth bonus. I do this as long as possible and use the money from anomalies to keep my economy afloat. I can usually keep spending at 100% and taxes low enough to get 100% morale -- till a bit after I've finish colonizing planets and have started putting in factories.

I believe in getting some speed on my ships, so i go straight to impulse engines as fast as i can ( 100% research ). Survey ships with 3 impulse engines and 3 basic life support have good speed and range. ( It's both cheaper and faster to buy a basic survey ship and then upgrade it -- as of 1.3 beta 2a).

Some like buying colony ships right off -- personally i buy survey ships and build my colony ships. If you want survey ships early on try taking Xeno Engineering, Stellar Cartography, and Sensors as starting techs. Also consider buying with long time option. Try both approaches and see what works for you.

Other techs nice to have before building colony ships are Planetary Improvements (+10 to SP, MP, and research ), Galactic Warfare ( +10 to MP ), Space Militarization ( +10 to MP )

Another tech that helps morale early on and doesn't take too long to research is Xeno Entertainment ( +10% morale ).

If your playing update 1.2, you can probably experiment around on tough difficulty level. However if your playing 1.3 beta 2a or the new 1.3 beta, you might want to try an easier difficulty first as the AI has definitely been improved -- haven't played enough to see how much but suicidal is loseable for me now.

There are some good posts that can be found by searching the forums with either masochist or suicidal.

Yea, first game I played was on a small universe on beginner with 3 races. I won it in like 150 turns with an influence victory and I had no idea what I was doing. You can set up the the game to be very easy for learning it. Once you pick it up, you'll find yourself quickly running up the difficulty levels as you discover how to take advantage of the many play styles this game offers.

Have fun