Well here's one:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/bnqhaottzg9hz5h/soitstreasontheninvasion.GC3Sav?dl=0
Yes I know Eighth has another h in it lol. But basically what I tried to do after I figured things out again is try to manipulate my construction to take advantage of adjacent hexes and the associated production bonuses. Once you get further down the tech tree you get things like Solar Plants and even the Capital structures, both of which greatly augment the abilities of nearby buildings, which stack with extra points given by the colonial HQ and any adjacency bonuses. If you do it right there's a lot of efficiency to be gleaned.
I generally start my colonies with a factory to get the manufacturing score up and expedite further construction. It may not be permanent - a big thing you have to realize is that specialization is the name of the game. One planet might have research, another big on construction, etc, etc. Much like in real life this lets you set up economies of scale - if a planet has a lot of structures doing the same thing it's going to be a lot better than one trying to dabble in all of them. This is ultimately better for not only their petty proletarian market but your empire as a whole. Setting up two or more 'forgeworlds' sponsoring a shipyard lets you expand very rapidly once the early research is out of the way. A banking or trade world can't hurt your wallet, either. Just make sure when specializing to Govern your planets to, you know, specialize. I don't think I did that yet with several planets in that save.
Something you might notice in the save file is that I really didn't go too doggedly after entertainment buildings or population ones. With the latter, it's because I didn't really want to devote resources to the former. With the former, I kinda went all aggro on the Yor and diverted the research points that would have been for them to more shiny ships and the associated military industrial complex. You WILL need population to crew colony ships and military transports, but at the beginning I personally don't see it as too much of a concern. Riots aren't fun.
Only really go hard on Influence buildings if you know your neighbors are teching into it. It's really easy to spot - just look for slowly expanding borders. Altarians seem to always do it by default so keep on your toes when facing them. Anyway, if that's the case you need to fortify your border worlds with consulates and embassies wherever possible, and/or construct starbases with hardcore culture modules to beat back the tide.
Defense buildings are okay, but nothing's really going to beat a dedicated attack quite like an opposing fleet. I gravitate towards a gun on every planet on the frontline with squadrons on standby to garrison if need be. Note that a larger population on a planet with one or more defense building + high approval is pretty much a death sentence for half or more of any attacking transports if you're still in the early game.
Lastly, when looking into any structure, or specializing a planet to accommodate its type, make absolutely certain to either research or trade for the relevant '+x%' techs. They can be the difference between 5 and 2 turns once you get it going.
