Some notes re current best strategies while I analyze game systems. I figure Cajin might appreciate some real competition. I intend to eventually disrupt these with rebalancing, etc, but they should be valid for several rounds.

Earning points:
Training Assaults: Use a 10x planet, gives 75,435 extra T over crashing untrained assaults - and saves 1.5 m Iron as well. Takes 30 captures.
Alien planets: Requires a 140% 500 k assault to take up to a 20x alien planet, but any and all give 0.6 points per spend production point (in T, in this case), which is the best exchange rate I've found so far, matched by capturing player planets w/o crashing.
Crashing max assaults is the next most valuable points per production point I've found, at 0.138 points per PP.
I've not done the math for turrets yet, or what kind of ship to bring - they might decrease or increase the net value of hitting homeworlds.
Blowing up ships is nowhere near as valuable in points, so that might be something to change later.

What about getting production?
If you have 1 m of each non-defensive resource on your planet, your planet gets 15.6 free production points worth of resources.
Buildings - specifically the ones with no tradeoffs for V, G, I, S, and U give an extra 25 production points per planet, though they require up to almost 189 days to pay off the last level. Still, any planet that you'll keep for a while should maximize these.
A vet taking full advantage of 50 planets can earn up to 3030 effective production points every 15 minutes. That's almost 131 million U equivalent per round. However, it takes almost 646 days to build up to that point. In contrast, a dedicated player with 24 roughly 18x planets (leaving one for nearby chaining), level 4 mines on all and taking full advantage of interest only earns around 1285 effective production points - around 65.5 m U equivalent per round (after 150 days as well). A novice player with 10 10x planets without the resources to build or maximize interest earns around 100 production points - around 4.3 m U equivalent per round. Quite the gap between vets and new players!

Other strategies:
- Check nearbies and break any chains, so if players find one of your planets they can't eat them all. Do this by obliterating every other system, roughly, but also check coordinates to ensure at least 1000 units separation on at least one axis from all your other systems.
- Harvest from gathering planets frequently to ensure they are less juicy targets. Use a 2.5 m transport if you can afford one.

Probably more, but this'll do for now. Back to work.

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SkyLords Head Programmer

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Force of nature.