Had a very limiting early game. Got cornered by two avian empires on my left and basically mammalian space Pope on my right. Ended up allying space Pope (we're both fanatic spiritualists) and I took over both avian pops. One integrated well and the other was, well, troublesome. I spent an insane amount of influence keeping their sector from open rebellion, luckily I had a lot to spare.
After that I had a lot of catching up to do. Space Pope's neighbors were way ahead of us (also materialist avian jerks) and my neighbors above me were even more powerful. Most of my midgame was playing catch up and fighting wars against Space Pope's neighbors. Eventually I liberated half of those avian systems and put them in our alliance so the old empire would quit messing with us.
During that time I expanded above me. The two big bad civs above me started duking it out. I picked a side by sending an embassy to one and rivaling another. Luckily I picked correctly because the one I sent and embassy to crippled the other one, so I set up shop with a nice friendly buffer state and quite a few systems to myself.
Finally back in the groove and out of all those damn wars for once, I decide to invest in expanding below me so I can hit some appreciable levels of infrastructure. The outer rim only has a fallen empire and lots of colonizable planets. So I was stoked to get really powerful.
Then came the signals from outside the galaxy. I had just established my second planet on the outer rim and was working on a third. I didn't even realize they were landing RIGHT where I was expanding until it was too late. I was playing with my brother so we weren't pausing. Next thing I know my outer rim sector is crawling with multiple 15-24k stacks of these zerg fuckers.
I scramble my puny 12k fleet together before I realize how many of them there are. Once I did I immediately abandoned the sector. Billions were lost. The fleet I had already felt like a drain on my resources, I didn't think I had a chance. I hoped they would go elsewhere or calm down once they took the outer rim.
They didn't. In fact, they began attacking one of my core sectors as well as pushing into the FALLEN EMPIRE. If they couldn't hold them back, how the hell could I? It's not like I've been super ahead of my peers at any point in the game. My allies didn't do shit either. Space Pope and Bird Zealots decided they'd sit this one out (I made you who you are now, dammit!). Needless to say, I was spamming my build queue.
I managed to murder my resources and get my fleet just barely over 16k. I found one of their smaller 15k fleets in a nearby system and decided to try my luck there. The battle was scary to watch but I won with minimal losses. Sure, I thought, I can take a small fleet but there's no way I could face those 20k fleets.
Luckily my brother wanted in on the action. His empire was much more developed than mine so we traded military access and sent in a 12k fleet to help. The fighting was tough and I lost a ton of territory but we managed to stop their advance. I'm bleeding energy credits like crazy but I managed to get my fleet up to 20k.
Can't reclaim the infested world's though. We tried bombing them, doesn't work. There might be an event or tech that helps me out here later. For now, I am the gate keeper of the galaxy. The one who keeps these monsters from growing out of control.
Funny enough, my starting position has always felt like a chokepoint. I loathed it most of the game, but now it's the only thing that keeps the galaxy from falling apart.