So, Terra just got glassed by a hostile NPR. So game over and on to the next game. I did have a couple of observations that came out of this last game.
New lessons;
1) Maintenance facilities are critical. I had a bad bottleneck between system failures, maintenance supplies, facilities, and fleet size. This is a much more important item in C# Aurora than in VB6. Lesson learned, build these fast and early!
2) Watch the diplomacy messages in the event log. When you see LOTS of communications, but no real success in translation, you had better be prepared for shooting to start! I found the NPR, got out of the system and sent a diplo ship. Sat on the warp point, and got zero progress, but lots of messages. Moved to the other side of the WP. They quickly followed me out and kept hitting me with messages. Zero progress. Moved to the warp point outsystem. More of the same. The NPR was constantly communicating, but I was making absolutly no progress in translation. Have a feeling this was high militancy and high xenophobia in action.
Lessons relearned through stupidity;
1) Have enough fire controls! Totally my fault. My cheap patrol frigates had one gauss turret and three railgun bays. Only had one fire control.... oops.
2) Get out and build early! I had a couple of leisurely games before this one. This time I ran into an NPR five years in and they went hostile fast. I wasnt ready for a fight and had no real defenses on my colony, and it was one jump from Earth. Fatal mistake.
3) Not enough freighters. I should have built more and gotten more things out in the field. The lack of freighters really hampered my development speed, which contributed to #2. I was so busy micromanaging my military ships, I neglected the commercial side.