tetleytea

I usually wait. Land-grabbing the other star systems is the priority. Although, you can design your own colony ship and slap on an extra hyperdrive, which can render your initial colony ship obsolete. You can also design a cheapo colony ship with no life support or hyperdrive, which you can colonize Mars with.

I don't know what exactly gets tougher on tough (I'm on normal), but I'm building some big sensor ships...cargo hulls...and some small, fast fighters with 1 laser. And I just research up the engine line to Warp drive. The sensor ships spot what the DL's are doing, and the fighters intercept any transports. It's tough & monotonous, scouting the northern route & trying not to piss off any DL ships, and sometimes the fighters have to go on kamikaze m