As you increase the difficulty level in the game, the number of winning paths drop. Still, up to the level just above Tough (max CPU), I have found that there are many general courses that lead to wins. At those lower levels, one can even set up one's race to use a certain strategy and then change one's mind and take a path counter to the one for which the race had been optimized.
For example, one can intend to head for a military win, get a home world or first colony with lots of research tiles, and go get a research vioctory, instead. Once, I intended to try for an Alliance victory, had the Drengi declare war on me early, I got two early Lucky Rangers, and I just decided to kick butt.
If one has set the game up for Abundant Anomalies, then getting Sensors early and building a few survey ships is worthwhile. I would not use the Homeworld for that, though. Instead, use the first colony you make that has a Manufacturing bonus tile or two on it. That lets that world's population grow and lets you keep harvesting the Homeworld's population. Otherwise, I have found Mumblefratz' suggestion not to build things on new colonies a good one, waiting instead until the population grows enough to keep the cash flow not too negative. I use 1 billion as a rule of thumb.
Generally, i rush build little except very early, convert my miner to a colony ship as soon as the fields right next to the Homeworld are done - sooner if there is a juicy planet nearby, tax just enough to keep 100% approval, and let the treasury slowly drift down while at 100% spending. Every early rush purchase means a couple turns sooner loss of full spending, so I do it very little. Eventually, I have to bite the bullet and yank up taxes and throttle spending, but just when and for how long is different every game. Soon, the government, green base, and other economic bonuses combine with higher population to let me get back to full spending and slowly drop the tax rate again.
