Hi!
You forget to mention two very important facts: game difficulty level, and the amount of planets you can expect to get in your game. Without them I can only point you to read more of a Strategy section here on forums.

BR, Iztok

I myself usually play on Tough difficulty and what I notice with that is the +2 Speed coupled with getting a trade network up and running first. Colony rush when your ships are moving at 3pc as apposed to 1pc makes a huge difference. And while doing that research your way to some trade routes so that once you start dipping really heavily into the red you should be able to work yourself out of it with Frieghters, which also get to their destination x3 as fast. Your usually always losing money per turn but with what your Survey ship turns up on Auto Survey it's more often then not enough to keep your head above water.

I think i'll just add a little to what Loups said.

Notice first, that most of his suggestions deal with your economy, this is the hardest thing to get going early on but once its strong you're on your way.

I tend to build a factory first, then 2 markets and then more factories. Remember that you can build over a structure later so don't worry about using up too many tiles. Also, you cn choose what planets will be your cash cows later, evn if they have factories and stuff on them. WHat i do is, as my empire grows, those plaets that are really far from my border get changed into economic and research planets. But again, thats after i hve a bunch of other planets.

I have been using my home planet as my economic capital since it will usully be my highest populated word (all others only get to 13B) AND it has a high population early.

Its true that you need to have some sort of military to keep war away but dont under estimate those diplomacy techs either. They dont just help with tech trading.

I find myself in a hole many times militarily, i tend to do less research than that AI and build fewer ships. most of the game i'm last in military. BUT at the disadvantage of my weapons techs, i have a greater economy and reseach ability so i can change that quickly. So to answer your question, i build up my military later. I try to use treaties, trading and diplomacy to keep the wars away, even getting th two best militaries to fight eachother.

Well thats it for my random thoughts.

Just one change from the previous post though... your planet by planet approval can be as low as 41% before you stop growing your population. Going upto 50% doest change the rate of growth, you ould need to get up to 75% and thats not worth the loss of taxes. Of course you have to have a better approval for reelection of your political party, so keep an etye on whn the election is and gt you approval up just before then.

Now, these are refined technics, which are classified under a top-secret file called "dirty tricks" among many others...

PS: I'am also permanently sicking how to foolish the AI...