So, I've tried this for three games now and got some impressions and wondered what other other people think?

The main conclusions are that without a planet wheel it's a considerably harder game - a difference of between 1 and 2 levels; that the AI has improved considerably 

(but still needs to be given a larger invasion radius in the xml to be even scarier); and that contrary to Stardock's hope you actually need to do much more micro-managing without the planetary wheel.

At the moment the governors seem to be of no use whatsoever as far as I can see but of course if Stardock returned some bonuses to them then you would want them to kick in once you'd got the planet sorted.  

All three were with Thalians on large galaxies with abundant planets and common habitable: 5 random opponents and, most important this, minor races.

The first on incredible (the level I'd beaten the previous game using the planetary wheel) I was utterly crushed partly because the Drengin attacked much earlier than I was expecting but I couldn't have done anything anyway.

I went down to genius and in the first game resigned on move 170 at which point I was still intact with 14 planets but the Drengin who were bound to attack in the end had just over 2000 power - the Yor next were just under 500 and I was last on 222 although I'd already taken out the Krynn. (I was tech leader but it was of no help whatsoever).

I suppose I should use cheat mode to see why the Drengin were so terrifying.

The third game on genius I was lucky enough to find a size 26 planet as my first colony. I took out the Krynn and later the Drengin, didn't bother with the rest - Altarians, Iconians, Iridium. who were all at least warm and reached Ascension about move 260 something. 

Rather than generalising planets, I've been trying to use specialisation for the adjacency on most decent sized ones (if they were big enough I gave them two specialities (eg -PR)) and swinging the universal wheel wildly between near 100% production and near 100% research. (Incidentally when research is near zero you should always set it to an expensive tech in case a surveyor finds an "Unfortunate Genius" - I was lucky enough to pick up one of the big beam techs - plasma pods I think - while on a production splurge.

The production also moved between about 20-80 and 80-20. At one stage to build two huge juggernauts I set it at 0-100 for 8 moves I think and fiddled with the shipyard assignments to get them done in 4 moves each.

For money, I used the "Minor Planet economy, selling techs to them - and sometimes they were quite rich - to keep going at a deficit for as long as possible. I also sold to the other majors too but more sparingly. 

I got hit by the very lovely peacekeepers but late enough that I had fleets that could take out even the biggest ones. I don't know when the earliest they can arrive is? But obviously, depending I suppose on difficulty, it ought to be set to a stage when it's reasonable that you could defend - I wonder how late people feel that should be?

I'm interested what other methods people are using to get the economy going? I think it helps a huge amount in the opening to have Thalian tech because you can get three techs - 2xship improvement + hives  seems best to me - and then set the wheel to 100% production for a few moves to  get the colonisation and constructor building going.

The AI were much more menacing sending in transports early on if you were close enough. But I did find that they still dribbled units in my direction during wartime which was a bit Civ2-ish. It's clear that early on as soon as you've got a decent weapon you should research logistics techs rather than trying to improve the weapon itself.  

The UI is much improved but the ship list in particular still needs considerable cleaning up - I imagine when the official 1.3 (rather than the opt-in) comes out this may already have been addressed. 

Anyway, any thoughts please?

Jon