Ok, here are some of my maso tips for fellow ANZACers and anyone else. I play a weird sort of game so don't know if it will be any help or not.
First take +2 Speed as a race pick. The leftover points and your party you can pick to suit your style. If I am going for a culture bomb I pick Influence, otherwise I pick Economy or Diplomacy. My party is the one with Social and Military production bonus. (Can't remember the name).
Galaxy type - pick Large/Scattered and probably Uncommon/Common (one of the lower middle ones). Abundant on a first maso game would be too hard. I was a big girls blouse and picked Rare on my first maso.
First part of the game is standard - 100% military, 0% Social, a little bit of research. Spending 100% and Tax on 50%. Set Tax too high and it kills growth.
Do the usual colony rush. With the +2 Speed you will be able to get to planets before the AI. Their colony ships speed is (I think) 2, yours is 4. Depending on the map you should be able to get a similar number of stars as them, maybe a bit less or a bit more.
I only take good/neutral colony random events as if you slip under 50 the Torians/Altarians will come at you.
I also build one scout to find minor civs and resources.
Research is set to Communications.
Ok, this is the wierd bit, which you might not like, but worked for me when I first started. Once the colony rush is over, I set my Military to almost zero and leave it there. I don't build ships or constructors/starbases in the first half of the game!
I leave Military at just abit above zero and set the queue for Constructors. (It will say 200 months to build or something like that).
Research goes to about 75% and Social to about 30%. Tax drops back to 40ish% and spending just enough to keep me out of the red.
Add Soil Enhacement to the queue and start building them.
Should note that you probably won't get any trade goods or wonders in the first quarter of the game as the AI researches and produces too fast. Even Ray said he has trouble building them at the start.
I try for Diplomatic Accelerators but if I can't get it then never mind. When I can get them on occasion it is only via leasing.
You can't keep up with the AI on research, so I don't bother with ANY military techs. I go for the Yellow and Green ones. So Comms/Universal/Diplomacy first so you can change government.
Then Medical and Habitat Improvements (and add that to the queue). Then Manufacturing Plant.
So my build queue is: Soil/Habitat/Banking/Manufacturing.
Ok, you are colonised and defenceless. Hopefully your scout has found some minor civs. More hopefully one of them will have built Diplomatic Accelerators. You won't have enough to get that yet, but later you can.
Start tech trading with the minors.
They like Medical and Habitat and will give you stuff for that. You can play them off each other and get a few more techs. At some stage they will usually have Deflectors and Shields. They will never give you Deflectors, but for some reason, will always trade Shields. You may have to give 3 or more techs for it - but take it.
Then swap your constructor building for Battleaxes. Depending on how high your military slider was, you will churn out a battleaxe on each planet pretty quickly.
During this whole time - keep an eye on the AI relations. If you took all good colony random events, the good civs should be at least neutral. The others are less predictable. If they drop to cool, gift them a tech. You will be researching parts of the tree tey ignore so you will have stuff to give. If they drop to hostile, wet your knickers and run like the wind
You should be researching Nano-Electronics, Nano-Frequency, Zero Gravity (Research Labs), Brain Wave Mapping, Organic Piercing - all the stuff in that part of the tree. I also go for the +10 Trade stuff as well when I can. This part of the tree also lets you build Virtual Reality Modules and other TGs.
You have to keep the relations at least on Cool - hopefully Warm. If they ask you you for heaps of money and you can afford it - them give it to them. If you can't afford it or they ask for a system, say no. Relations will drop a notch. Gift them a good tech and it usually jumps by two and stays there.
They are usually all trading with me (I haven't established any trade routes of my own yet, but you can if you want to) so this helps relations as well.
Also, by now, they are trading with you so money should start dribbling in. Because they are trading and because you have no costly military, you should be able to increase spending and decrease taxes. For this part of the game I have tax on about 25-30%% and spending above 80%. You should have enough by now to get Diplomatic Accelerators so trade for them.
By the first third of the game I have added Economic Exchange to the queue, and also Antimatter and Fusion for planets I want to build TGs and wonders on.
I now pick whoever is strongest. I find my best PQ planet and increase Military Spending. I build constructors and make trade bases at my best planet. I send freighters from there only to the strongest AI and also build trade starbases at their system. You can build some along the way, but I can never be bothered.
So, if you have survived to this point you are building constructors, social projects and researching. (But still no military tech). Your scout should have found most resources which will be taken by an AI. Find ones you want (Economy and Research are the ones I want - and Influence if I am going to culture bomb in the second half of the game or Military if you are going to attack). Park constructors near each resource and bribe the AIs to declare war on each other. If two have an alliance try and get one into a war so they will drag the other in as well. The AI attacks resources and when they do - move your constructor in and take it.
Also park combat transports near each minor planet and set it to sentry. The AI usually attacks them at some point and when they destroy their ships invade them and take their planet before the AI does. (But prepare for you income to drop sharply when you lose their trade).
By this point one of the AIs will trade you Battleship and Dreadnoughts for some tech you have. Don't go to them - they will come to you - you get a better deal that way.
At this point you can start churning out ships and head down the standard war route, or you can keep going peacefully.
If you opt for war, backtrack down the tree and get all the hitpoints and attack/defence techs. Also get the soldier bonus ones as well.
If you opt for peace, then go for Terracomputing and all the +10 research techs. Also get Transporters (and immediately set all planets to build them) and Pain Amplifier and Regenerator tech.
Set your high production planets to build those TGs.
Then go for Terraforming - but make sure your planets have built the essentials before building terraforming as this is a time consuming project.
If you go for a culture bomb - then research Propoganda Machine, Party Palaces, and Cultural Maximisers. When you want to build culture starbases make fleets of 7 constructors. Send them to an adjacent sector and build up to Party Palace plus Maximiser. If you have two or three Influence resoureces fully loaded with a starbase, plus the Influence pick - then 5 or 6 of these fleets in an adjacent sector can flip a system - sometimes more, sometimes less.
My last game I did this, and never built anything ships beyond one battleaxe per system.
Also if I saw an AI at war and down to one or two planets, I kept a transport in the next sector as close to the system as possible. When the other AI destroyed their ships I moved my transport in. With the +2 Speed you can get there in one turn. I have to use mini-soldiers with major AI to invade, but don't usual need anything with minors.
Whenever you invade a minor another will pop up at some point. Find them, give them all your trade goods for as much money as possible, and park a transport there. The AI usually attacks at some point - so on sentry focus will switch to the transport as soon as it detects a ship. Invade the minor before the AI does.
That's it. All the above doesn't always work. Because you have no military at the start - you are vunerable. I have had the yellow and red guys next door to me at the start of a game, and they are to volatile (no matter how man gifts I give) to deal with and I usually lose. Bugger.
A couple of games, the Dregnin were dominant by the mid-game and they are harder to keep on your good side if you have no military. I was having to gift them every couple of turns and it still wasn't working, so I switched all my planets to Anti-matter missles. This built up my attack rating very quickly and they left me alone after that, until I was ready to attack them.
I haven't tried the above on small/tiny. For those games I rush to Corvettes and attack. But only played a couple of those.
With the above you can usually get every TG and wonder apart from the early ones. You get the Tri-quan thingo which helps with invasions. You get nano-recorder, hyper computers, galatic guide book, historical preserve, terraformer, etc.
The main thing to remember is
- use speed to grab planets at the start
- don't bother with starbases and ships at the start
- research the green techs (and to a lesser extent
the yellow ones) as they ignore them.
- tech trade with minors as much as possible.
- use gifts to keep the AIs onside
- use bribes to get them to fight each other
- keep constructor near resources and wait for them
to be destroyed and grab them
- pick the strongest AI and send all your freighters
there (and build trade bases)
- culture bombs with fleets of 7
- don't build capitol ships unless you are going to
attack soon.
Hope this all helps a bit.
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Just try harder. 
