Tried a game as Soviet Union
First system jump in late 39, encountered a huge ship. Destroyed both Geosurvey ships, and followed my jump cruiser into sol.
What followed was a desperate uphill battle, the ship was a 60 000 ton swarmer carrier with shields and whatnot. And ridiculous compliment of FAC's. It moved on to destroy everything it saw, which included all the civilian constructions. I managed to hide my freighter and colonization fleets in the asteroid field. Eventually earth itself was invaded, and in the war that lasted a year my ground forces fought tooth and nail against the overwhelming forces.
And after the last bastion of resistance was wiped out from the face of the motherland, the scorched earth protocol was put on effect. Every missile silo on earth launched their ordinance at the remaining alien ground forces, and the nuclear bombardment not only wiped them out, but caused massive radiation and dust levels to block out the sun.
My victory was short lived when the radar systems on earth detected another massive fleet of FAC's incoming.
At that point I figured out it was good time to give up and start a new game