Starting configuration for large maps/high difficulty?

from Stardock Forums
I have experience on small maps, and ive noticed that some picks (+1 spd for example) are awesome on these maps; I was wondering what would be a good choice for gigantic maps on a high difficulty level (intelligent or genius).

I think i go with War party (+50% hp), though Federalists or Technologists also seem good choices. The idea is that with high hp ships, i need less of them for defense/attack, increasing my constructor output rate and decreasing my maintainance costs.

Picks: Economy: +60% (6 pts), Research +20% (2 pts), Weapons +15% (1 pt) and Morale +10% (1 pt)

Any comments on my political party choice and abilities? Thx
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Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
Political Party
- War Party: How often do you intend to be at war? If you are not at war you're not using its bonuses, and in other words it'll be a waste. Can you afford to see your ship's HPs drop by 50% if you lose the senate?
- Federalists: When _won't_ you be spending cash, and wishing you had more? :D More cash allows you to do just about everything more effectively. This is a political party that you can take advantage of 100% of the game regardless of the victory condition you're aiming for.
- Technologists: Same deal as war party. How often will you be doing research? Do you want a tech victory?

Picks:
Solid picks except for Weapons, and possibly Morale. There was another thread here that talked about how the Weapons bonus is useless because GC rounds down. According to the poster, your ships won't take advantage of the attack bonus until dreadnaughts if you pick the lowest weapon bonus. And even then all you get is a +1 attack bonus. If you think it's worth it, then go for it.

I've heard people complain that even +20% morale facilities don't do much once population starts to increase, so the chance of +10 morale doing much doesn't seem that great. This is all just theory though.

If I were playing in a Gigantic map, I would probably take one of hte following abilities.
1) +60 Econ - more cash allows you to do more stuff
2) +60 Trade - The greater the distance covered by freighters, the more cash you get. This ability allows you to take advantage of the size of the map.
3) +2 Speed - Large map most likely means large empire. You'll want to be able to reinforce any system quickly. Also helps you during the initial colonization phase of the game. Any race that happens to be your neighbor will be one unlucky sucker because it most likely means they'll be restricted to 3-4 star systems if they're lucky :)
4) +15% planet quality - Better planets means more cash, and also better morale because overcrowding and the like won't be a problem for a while. You can also instantly take advantage of any class 14 planets you run into.