Well, you could work on strengthening your influence ability and send out constructors to starsystem of other races that are not connected to the main empire, as they seem to be easier to flip, atleast in my mind.

In your next game, perhaps attempt using ships without Colony Modules, so you can build several Hyper Drives, and a "Range Module" (Don't remember what they're called.)

TIP

Suck up to your neighbours, make friends, ensure that your enemies are enemies of your friends. That saved me sometimes, but only 1.5 planets is a bit tough I'd think.
Also use influence to try to capture other planets, that is possible without making other races too angry at you.

Being stuck with only your home system does kind of suck, but with those settings against 9 opponents, no one is going to have more than a few planets. So I don't think it's hopeless.

But I wouldn't do what everyone else is suggesting. I'd go for a fast rush. Develop your planets with just the basic structures, then research planetary invasion. If you're fast enough, you can have transports and invade before your enemy even has combat ships. That will make up for your lack of colonization.

Ok dont rush your econamy, you bought 4 ships a about 1200 bc, so thats 4800bc gone. Develop your own strategy, one that works for you.

Tip: Buy factories and econamic buildings and optimise your homeworld

I never give up until I really do have nothing left to get, and am absolutely sure there are no good planets left. For example, I was out-colonised at the beginning of one game after choosing the wrong star systems, and ended up with my class 10 homeworld and a class 6 planet in a neighbouring star system. I was about to give up when I noticed one star system left. I sent along a colony ship and what did I find?

A class 18 with a Precursor Mine!

Won spectacularly in the end.

Lesson 1: Do not buy colony ships after the first turn. Buy factories. Focus your homeworld's spending on ships. Don't worry about social spending on anything yet, you can do that when the rush is over. Buy two or three factories typically, or less if you happen to get a nice production bonus tile. Only buy those factories and let the shipyard do what it can. It should get down to less than five weeks per ship in REAL short order.

Lesson 2: If you play a smaller galaxy, the first thing you do is hit the shipyard, get a cargo hull, a colony module, a single support module, and as many engines as you can strap on. Forget sensors, these ships aren't going to exist long enough to make them useful. You're not going for distance, you're going for speed. Get them to the next available habitable ASAP. Let the Flagship explore while its hunting for anomalies. A medium or smaller galaxy, and you can probably forget the support module, just get those ships to the nearest habitable like yesterday. Focus research on engine techs and keep those ships upgraded. Every new engine tech, you hit the shipyard and create a new version of your colony ship with the faster or smaller engine. Don't upgrade ships in flight, that just slows them down for a week or two, just have the shipbuilding worlds make the new version. If you think about it, sequence them like v1, v2, and so on, to ensure they'll be available in future games as you research techs.

Lesson 3: If you keep getting hammered in the colony rush, then saturate the area with more targets. One thing I've learned playing gigantic galaxies is that there's nothing common about common numbers of planets. In fact, it tends to be bloody sparse.

Lesson 4: When you launch your colony ships, if you don't see a habitable immediately on screen, then you work your way around your homeworld, sending ships to the nearest unknown stars until you find them. Don't get too linear in your exploration, you do NOT want your homeworld on someone's border. A small area empire that is thoroughly colonized is less a handicap than a spread out empire with a lot of other people's planets interspersed in your area of control (unless you like Influence fights, in which case, that's actually an ideal set up).

I don't mind starting in an edge or a corner, so long as another alien race isn't sitting right on top of me... THAT gets ugly in a hurry. For some reason, the game seems hellbent on starting my Terrans with either the Drengin or the Yor up its butt...

If I don't get enough planets in the initial rush, I restart. Personally, I just don't find the game any fun unless I have something to work with. I also never consider the military option.

The number of planets on Common seems to vary a heck of a lot. I have had games were everyone got 4-6 planets, I have had one game where the Altarians got 6 or 7 planets, and the other 8 of us has 2 or 3.

Another way of coping with the rush is to start with a race that has Ion Drive. That's the Drath, the Yor and the Korx. You can also create a Custom Race with Ion Drive. I've done that recently, although I have not used them yet.

Finally, for those that play on Tough or below, I played some Painful level games recently. If you think the rush is bad on Tough, it's horrific on Painful. I swear the AI does cheat. How else can it sends ships to worlds through my space when I have not seen a scout or survey ship of their race?

The end of the rush is one feature of Dark Avatar I am really looking forward to, perhaps my favourite. However, I can't help but wonder whether it will just change the rush from an insane colony ship-building strategy to an insane tech race AND colony ship-buidling strategy. Probably not, but we'll see.

I haven't tried this with 1.4 but one thing you can sometimes do is switch to 100% science and go for planetary invasion techs before switching to 100% military. I've won several games this way on Crippling.

Well, the majority conensus seems to be either (a) give up and go on to a more enjoyable game(Scintor, ras1310)or(b)try concentrating on influence and diplomacy while rushing planetary invasion (TiPerdsen, Tertulian, Biggy Boy, nullspace, Evil Muppet, r02778, 7th circle).

In my limited experience, I don't mind being put in a corner. In games other than the one in question, I havent found that starting from a corner necessarily handicaps finding habitable planets to colonize. I agree with ConQuesci - it's nice to have your rear and flanks protected.

Evilo Druid, it was a 1 on 4 game.

Evil Muppet, No I've at least progressed enough to have figured out to not colonize Mars until there are absolutely no more habitable planets to find.

I like the suggestion of saving the game repeatedly and coming back to saved games to try new strategies. Seems like a good way to learn.

Hmm... I like being against a wall. A safe flank is a wonderful feeling, and thought it may take a LOT longer to win, it's not nearly as bad as having four computers gang up on you and realizing that there is one on each side of you. I once played a gigantic map. The Drengin and I (Terran) were totally isolated in one corner of the galaxy. That was ugly. He jumped me militarily, but in the end I hammered him technologically. (It always makes me smile when I've been losing a war and then role out one single battleship that the enemy can't beat...) Anyway my philosophy is always play the game to the bitter end. Even if its a lose. You learn more that way.

ShuShu62,
To reveal my ignorance - What is "Russian Winter"?