blowing the empires budget on a high end merc works, especially one that can kill large hulls all day long. Had one game I was attacked by drengin and another race. One wanted me dead while the other just harassed me for awhile. If it was for my merc I would have lost the few planets I had at the time. In most new games I start, if I have more than 3 civs within 2 star systems distance I restart. It might make for an interesting game, but I don't want to spend the first 150 fighting for survival with few if any planets while my neighbors gobble up everything in sight.

@pheonixstorm - I like the idea of a mercenary to help fend them off, but money is usually in tight supply at that point due to losing the trade routes. Maybe I can buy one and plant him early in the game.

@dlapine1 - I'd guess it usually happens around 50-100 turns into the game, just after everyone can "see" each other. Galaxy is Large. I generally have 5 or 6 colonies by that point. Generals are not the only citizens I create - I usually create scientists and entrepreneurs and put them on my home world until I'm forced to switch to generals because someone has declared war on me.

You just can't completely turtle in the early game if you have close neighbours. To be fair, the AI is fairly on-point here: the civs closest to me usually get gobbled up soon after I meet them. I mean, it only makes sense to pick on low-hanging fruit, right?

I think it comes down to focusing on invasion vs colonization in the early game. I find that gaining another homeworld quality planet, with intact factories, labs and so on is well worth the tradeoff in reduced mining and trading (can't trade much with someone you're planning to conquer).

There's a small window in the beginning of the game when even gifted and genius AIs are vulnerable to early invasion. If you get transports ASAP, you can cobble together a few military techs while your fleets are in transit to beat a relatively weak homeworld fleet (in 2.71 at least, the AI's fleet doesn't just sit around and can be caught out away from home). Once they start spamming ships, you're back to a more conventional military encounter.

I tend to build none or very few military ships (only enough to deal with pirates) until I get the first war declaration, prefering to spend resources on recon (awacs cargo ships are a must here), colonization, starbases and planet buildup first. But I always research/trade for relevant techs (engines, sensors, hulls, capacity, weapons) and build a few dedicated shipyard worlds so that when the time comes, I can switch focus and churn out warships ASAP. Couple this with buying mercs and I can generally match any fleet that arrives later to attack me, then slowly prevail and take the fight to the enemy.

If you get attacked very soon, perhaps the galaxy is too small for the number of players?

First thing you need to do when starting the game is go to the designer and create light versions of your colony and constructor ships. No need for extended range or increased speed for close planets and resources, just wastes build time. Also design a light defense type craft, revisit as you research and pay attention to construction cost. You dont have much manufacturing at the moment so dont add anything else. One weapon, thats it, no engine, no range, no sensors, no defense. Dock all military ships on your planets and starbases to lessen maintenance costs. No need for them to be sitting in space draining your economy. While you are in the designer put as many sensors as you can on a cargo design to act as your sensor probes to place in a 360 around your colonies and/or on each colony as needed, use them to clear the fog of war and explore.

As you gain more tech and manufacturing update your ship designs or create knew ones to give you the most weapons for the least build time. Make sure you have light designs for shipyards that have less manufacturing ability in your empire. If you are building a ship with 27 turn build time, that is the wrong answer and a waste of time. Make a lighter design or build something else.

After you have queued a shipyard in a newly colonized planet add that planet to an existing shipyard until it is built. Even if it is far away, you will get one point minimum which is big early game.

Build a couple of over lapping military starbases and keep most of your fleet within their overlapping coverage to increase your military power. Preferably near your homeworld or strategic area you have determined.

If you play on a big map it may be in your interest not to explore too far past where you intend to colonize and keep. If an alien race hasn't been discovered yet, they are not going to declare war on you.

Trade your early tech for money with other civs or for tech you need for your strategy.

Tip. If you hold the control button down while a ship is selected the number of moves and turns to a hex will display as a tooltip. Great for knowing how much range to add to a ship.