A few questions for my first campaign

[nullspace]

I'm surprised to see this much variation in starting strategies.  I've always gone for mk2 and mk3 ships to start, and I don't think I've ever spent knowledge on engineers or command centers. 

[laxrulz777]

I'm tempted to try the turret strategy...

I've only been playing for a week but my current strategy is:
T2 Cruiser, Fighter, Bomber (unless there's bonus ship that really intrigues me in which case I'll use them instead of whichever base ship they're most like)
T2 Engineers (the fact that they teleport and you can move them around quickly from system to system is pretty huge)
One of the Starships (I haven't gotten a feel yet for which one feels the most "right" in my play style)
A couple cheap turrets (Lasers are really good for their price)

That's the first 12-15k (depending on what you buy)

Generally, I don't build Mark III ships until I get an advanced factory (I've yet to play a game yet where I couldn't get an advanced factory "quickly") and at that point I try to research as many Mark IIIs as I can...

In discussing the strategies though, it's probably helpful to know what type of game you're playing. I prefer epic games myself so I've been playing 120 systems, 1 AI advance per 30 minutes, AI 6 medium random, simple... Someone who plays 40 system complex, AI 7, fast and dangerous is going to have a very different strategy I imagine

My "Typical" game sees me deep raiding to hit the data centers and I try to keep the ai progression to under 100 until I get my first advanced factory... at that point, I usually make a beeline for one AI homeworld then pause and build up for the second homeworld...

[Velox]

Generally, I don't build Mark III ships until I get an advanced factory (I've yet to play a game yet where I couldn't get an advanced factory "quickly") and at that point I try to research as many Mark IIIs as I can...

     This is totally my point of view as well - not that mkIII ships are anything to sneeze at, but researching them only pays off to its fullest once you're getting both III and IV ships out of the deal.  I'm happy spending on all the other stuff I want until I my buck will be at its bangiest.

[x4000]

Generally, I don't build Mark III ships until I get an advanced factory (I've yet to play a game yet where I couldn't get an advanced factory "quickly") and at that point I try to research as many Mark IIIs as I can...

     This is totally my point of view as well - not that mkIII ships are anything to sneeze at, but researching them only pays off to its fullest once you're getting both III and IV ships out of the deal.  I'm happy spending on all the other stuff I want until I my buck will be at its bangiest.

I like the Mark III Bombers without and advanced factory simply because they do SO much damage to force fields, in addition to having such huge range that their survivability is greatly increased compared to the lower Mark-levels.  But yes, in general I also don't really rush for the Mark III ships until I have an advanced factory, unless I need the extra ship cap.  It's cheaper to increase ship cap by unlocking a wide array of Mark II ships, compared to just a few Mark III ships.

[laxrulz777]

Generally, I don't build Mark III ships until I get an advanced factory (I've yet to play a game yet where I couldn't get an advanced factory "quickly") and at that point I try to research as many Mark IIIs as I can...

     This is totally my point of view as well - not that mkIII ships are anything to sneeze at, but researching them only pays off to its fullest once you're getting both III and IV ships out of the deal.  I'm happy spending on all the other stuff I want until I my buck will be at its bangiest.

I like the Mark III Bombers without and advanced factory simply because they do SO much damage to force fields, in addition to having such huge range that their survivability is greatly increased compared to the lower Mark-levels.  But yes, in general I also don't really rush for the Mark III ships until I have an advanced factory, unless I need the extra ship cap.  It's cheaper to increase ship cap by unlocking a wide array of Mark II ships, compared to just a few Mark III ships.

I do remember one game in which I had to research the Mark IIIs earlier then I wanted because the advanced factories and advanced research stations were all quite far away and I had to get through some tough worlds that had me bottlenecked. Even then, I think I only researched Mark III Bombers and turrets to form a beachhead into the tough systems...

[x4000]

I do remember one game in which I had to research the Mark IIIs earlier then I wanted because the advanced factories and advanced research stations were all quite far away and I had to get through some tough worlds that had me bottlenecked. Even then, I think I only researched Mark III Bombers and turrets to form a beachhead into the tough systems...

Well, that's true.  Depending on the situation, if there are ion cannons guarding a key planet I'll unlock Mark III stuff sooner in order to take fewer losses with that.  Similar situation to yours, but not exactly the same.

[Kjara]

Huh, I've recently only been using mkII and mkIII units for the first half-3/4's of the game(as my resources can't keep up with even building all of them, so I don't need mkI unless I need a quick counter to a wave, aka kick out a bunch of mkI fighters to counter a parasite raid or something), so I unlock the mkIII's pretty fast(even without a adv. factory, in fact I'll usually skip adv. factories if they are close to my start, as they likely will be too far from the ai homeworlds and won't be that useful in the end game).  I tend to alot of raiding over planets with ion cannons though, so I would lose way too many mkI's on offense.

[x4000]

Huh, I've recently only been using mkII and mkIII units for the first half-3/4's of the game(as my resources can't keep up with even building all of them, so I don't need mkI unless I need a quick counter to a wave, aka kick out a bunch of mkI fighters to counter a parasite raid or something), so I unlock the mkIII's pretty fast(even without a adv. factory, in fact I'll usually skip adv. factories if they are close to my start, as they likely will be too far from the ai homeworlds and won't be that useful in the end game).  I tend to alot of raiding over planets with ion cannons though, so I would lose way too many mkI's on offense.

See, and I tend to be pretty rich in resources, because of the Mark II command stations and the way that I secure my hinterland.  It really lets me crank out larger fleets sooner, and I get a general better feeling of safety.  The downside is that it does make things a tad harder in the long run, I think, for a variety of reasons I'm sure you can guess.

[Haagenti II]

Why both exoshields and warp sensor?

If the exoshields defend the resource points, the marauders have to come to the orbital, and then it doesn't matter where they come from.

[RCIX]

They're both cheap (in terms of knowledge) and they both provide a useful function!