Help with my early game?

You need the bonus pack for the +PQ bonus. I play on large maps, and generally I find myself busy colonizing and/or grabbing resources during the first 2 years. Crank up spending to 100% and military production to 80+ and start churning out colonizers. 5 years is a bit hard to plan. Depends on your situation.

~SDC~

Ok, what about research? What do you recommend I get done first?

depends on what victory your playing for.Some say propulsion or communication to get the universal translator.If you try for an early grab to take a colony do research that will get you a starfighter and a transport to attack colonies.If your trying for alliance concentrate on diplomatic tech.Trade for the other technologies.

Generally, strategy should vary with map size and numbers of planets - for example,
- in smaller maps, the grab for planets doesn't take long, and you can afford to BUY your colonists from Mitrosoft, and need every turn that this saves you (buy another colonist from Earth every turn until your startign cash is gone...)
- while on larger maps, colonization takes longer, and the short term speed of the above strategy isn't worth the long term cost of paying Mitrosoft PLUS you just need more colonists than that strategy can provide (here, crank military spending to 60-80-or even-100, depending on how aggressively you want to colonise, and churn out a colonist every third turn or so...)

There are lots of threads, and lots of ideas, on the Strategies forum (look for headings like yours!) - just beware that some players always play the same settings [large, common, etc], so while thier views may be right for them, they may not apply to you (and they may not understand that).

~SDC~