Generally good points and yes I agree uni aqua 2prod lrhw is strong. I consider it even stronger than uni tol in a 4way with wormholes since the techlead assures flexibility when there is an early war. But when there are no wormholes uni tol has on most maps an edge...you overlook some small details:
unification, tolerant, large rich hw = colony base after 6 turns from start
unification, aquatic, +2 production, large rich hw = colony base after 6 turns as well!
Unitol wont produce it first BB on the hw therefore this race scraps the starbase very often. (Additionally 100PPs at start.)
However, you also have the opportunity to further increase production with pollution processor... this really lets you clobber a unitol in production.
Long way to poll proc and OTOH merculite is cool when you get the mirv mod on zort level (difficult to kill creas without merculites in a MP game). Your observation is true (in the long run) when you consider monster planets. But you overlook that uni tol works so well because of the rich and urich non-monster planets. These are mainly barren, toxic, etc. Useless for aquatic when you want to build battleships (too small) but a tolerant race has twice the pop capacity on these kind of planets. The tol-aqua competition is all about:
Does tol find enuff unguarded rich or urich planets?
Or are there nice amoebas, crystals or hydras near hw? Uni tol should consider to kill these monsters with interceptors then...it can build some early Laser-BBs there....(easily without poll proc)....and is ready for war then.
OTOH, aqua races can find nice wets and will gain a sufficient tech lead then. Also hv armor is sometimes an option with 2prod.
Another bonus is not needing to research farming tech, like hydro farms.
None of your above mentioned races should consider hydros anyway. They have enuff food. Hydros eat far too much maintenance (2BC).
Biospheres gives you back some of the pop you lost by not choosing tol or aqua, and there's no tough decision between soil enrichment and cloning center.
Mainstream is: Take soil when you have less than 4food per farmer!
Uni tol should generally take soil. The only exception is an early gaia near hw or lots of natives.
Uni aqua should generally take cloners. The exception is a poor neighborhood with less pop capacity. But in this case you wont take soil either. Go to supercomps or wartechs directly in this case.
The hidden bonus of lithovore is the ability to instantly get infrastructure in place on colony bases by dropping in pop from your home world for a few turns. With unitol, you have to buy infra, especially if it's a poor or u-poor world, but lithovore lets you build the old fashioned way.
All races should drop pop from your hw to the bases a few turns and buy the building when you have produced 50percent of the building to minimize the turns you dont use the colony bases for 1pop housing. Non-Lith races need round about 2 freighters early on (before rlabs). Just a small Lith bonus.
I do reload until I get at least something in all five orbits of my home star... asteroids, gas giants, toxic worlds...
Have you tried LordBrazen’s 1.4 patch with the planets switch? You can determine the minimum number planets in your hw. Take /planets=5 and you dont need any reloads when starts without asteroids or gas giants are acceptable for you. Or take /planets=4 when you want asteroids...you prolly need less reloads then:
http://masteroforion2.blogspot.com/2005/11/master-of-orion-ii-mods-overview.html
I actually chose Creative instead of Telepathic.
) No, i don't think wine work really. Just a myth.
