Here's a view of the Sol system:
Sol always starts with Earth (PQ16-20), Mars (PQ8), and Saturn (PQ3). That leaves two slots for random planets, which may or may not appear. This time we got a PQ12 at random. That may be useful, eventually.
In this game, we have extended sensor range so we can see more of the map more quickly, and better observe the goings on of any alien ships we encounter. There are two more anomalies to the left and below, on the main view.
Note that Earth shows as PQ21. That's actually PQ20 base, plus our 5% bonus kicking in to push that up one value. At least we start the best possible value for Earth.
I set our economic sliders to spend 100% of our production on military output (to build more colony ships quickly). Unlike civilization, which takes 6 to 15 turns in the early going to train a settler, GalCiv can put out colony ships in as little as two turns, and the amount of population to send on the ship can vary. (It's a good idea to try to send a number of colonists appropriate to the PQ of the target planet, as higher PQ worlds can support a lot more population comfortable. If the people are not comfortable, and the local resources are pinched to support them, they will not be happy, and that is not good).
I increased our total output to 86% of maximum capacity, to have Earth spending 17bc (billion credits) per turn. Since it takes 50bc to build a colony ship, we will get a new colony ship every three turns as long as these settings remain in effect.
This means we are not building any improvements on our planet, nor doing any research, but for now that is best. We can catch up those items later, but the land grab for worlds can't wait!
I send our starting colony ship northeast, hoping to expand in that direction. Our "habitability" is at 4 on a scale of 1 to 5, meaning the number of high-PQ planets will be more dense than at lower settings. We ought to be able to send our ships out and expect to find at least one out of every three stars with a viable world on it, perhaps even more. Of course, a bad luck streak could still happen, with a cluster of four or five stars all being crappy, but we'll see.
Our surveyor goes south and west to clean up the anomalies we've spotted.
On the second turn, our surveyor pops that asteroid, and we are able to use the materials found there to construct a warship!
USS Defender Fortune. You can see its stats: 1 attack, 3 defense, 25 hit points, no combat experience. I send this vessel home to protect the Sol system.
Anomalies come in "types". Asteroids always produce free ships of a minor variety (scouts, drones, minimalist warships). Energy anomalies produce minor boosts to a variety of stats: +1% to defense or weapons, hit points, research, economics, etc. They may also kick out +5% espionage, which rather renders +espionage bonus picks of relatively little value, since a couple of anomalies can equal them. Wormhole anomalies teleport your ship to a random spot on the map. "Unexplained" anomalies often do nothing, but if you get lucky, they will give you 25% of whatever tech you are currently researching. Obviously, you want to try to explore those when you are working on expensive techs, to get more value out of them. Space junk anomalies add minor upgrades to your surveyor. These are generally the least useful, though given enough of them, or in certain rare instances of very early warfare, they can be important.
In April 2178, Earth produced its first colony ship. I loaded up 200mil colonists and headed south.
Unfortunately, the first four stars I've explored are all weak. Stars with PQ15+ planets will almost always be yellow. (Rarely, they can be purple). Orange, blue and white stars may have planets as good as PQ14, but usually they have only useless rocks in orbit. Well, the first four stars I've found are all blue or orange.
Seeing as there turned out to be no good planets at the two stars to our south, I decided to go ahead and grab the PQ14 at Zeus.
No income there, so our initial bankroll of 1000bc will deplete a little faster, but the PQ14 is a "break even" planet, which costs us nothing to inhabit, and boosts our spending capacity. More colony ships can be built. I start Zeus building them. At 10bc/turn (bct henceforth) a colony ship will be done in five turns. The 200mil now on the planet is a bit high. In fact, I have to lower taxes a bit to bring their morale up over 50% (important). I'll simply send most of the colonists offworld in the first colony ship it builds, though, and that will fix the problem. Hopefully, they can continue on to a PQ15+ planet further west.
In September, our surveyor has found a yellow star! :jump: Unfortunately, another race lives there.
Guess who's coming to dinner.
by all means let me know! 
