Last month I decided to pick up the Shadows expansion during the holiday sale to see if it added enough to keep me interested in the game and I came across this thread around the same time. I started out a game following the directions above exactly and now I'm having a blast since I've learned a lot about running my empire myself without feeling overwhelmed. So thanks very much to Timotheus and I really hope to see the third and final part of this guide completed soon. Having the guide expand just a little bit more to cover colonization, spying, and tech stealing would be great. I've already figured some things out for myself when it comes to these subjects but it would be to see my decisions either affirmed or corrected and it would leave both new players and returning players like me with a good grasp of everything they need to jump into the not-so-deep end of the pool that is full manual control
