Playing my third game now, and really enjoying it. The first game I was utterly destroyed, having tried my typical 4x strategy of out-researching everyone. With 2 planets, only one of which was viable, and no military, I didn't stand a chance against the hordes. The second game, I was also destroyed; in this game, I focused entirely on expansionism. Every habitable planet I came across had an outpost plopped down. Unfortunately, they were all barren planets, and so I found myself deeply in debt, without a military, without any useful colonies, and having war declared by about half the enemy races.
In my new game, I went for a smarter approach to colonization only terran or ocean worlds. Unfortunately, I didn't create a military aside from a token gesture of about 5 fighters. Naturally, I found myself at war with 4 races, 3 of which invaded and took over half my worlds. Oddly enough, this was the best thing to ever happen to me. I had once again expanded too quickly, and so had a bunch of planets draining my economy. Planets which they gladly took upon themselves, throwing me from -10 income to +20 income. I then turned my homeworld entirely to fleet production, and soon went from #8 to #1 in military. I made peace with one race, in exchange for some tech, made peace and immediately broke it accidentally (twice) with the Vulfen, and proceeded to kick the crap out of them until their military is now #8 and I can bomb their homeworld at my leisure. I may simply destroy them soon, since I've already managed to drain them of their useful tech.
Still early game, very enjoyable. I particularly like the emphasis on military power while simultaneously not really allowing for any tech-race victory and making catching up not impossible. The homeworld also has weight to it; something I really like. It's not like GalCiv or SoaSE where after the first 10 minutes, the homeworld is no more important than any other planet. The homeworld is still vastly important despite being several hours into the game.