GalCiv2 Forums
So I just got this game and I get for the most part how the game mechanics work, etc, etc from the tutorials but I'm overwhelmed when I try to play. I have no clue what to do in terms of strategy, as in which techs to research, how fast to expand, fleet composition, etc. Any help would be great.
there are many threads giving tips and tricks. Trying browsing the forums for a few hours.
Also, just keep playing more games, and keep jacking the difficulty up as you go. Each game you play, you'll learn more.
So my advice is: play a game, then browse forums, then play a game, then browse forums, rinse and repeat.
In a dozen games or so you'll have a pretty good understanding.
Here are a few resources that might be helpful to you:
It's really tough to answer these kinds of questions, they're just too broad to answer in a reply. Even writing some long complex explanation really doesn't help because there are just so many different ways to play.
But one way is to let the AI be your guide. As Yuhjn implied start out at a low difficulty and if that level seems easy then move on to the next, you'll soon fine a level that challenges you. When you get there just try to keep up with the AI with things like research and colonization. When you have trouble come back to the forums and ask more specific questions and folks will be able to give you more specific answers.
How fast to expand? - In most games agressive expansion early is rewarded. The more you expand, the more resources you get, and the more weight you have behind you. GalCiv2 is one of thoes games.
Turtleing at your base means you only have 1 (2 if your lucky) planets that are giving you money and tec. More planets early mean more money later. If you dont do it, the AI will, and they will use thoes extra resources to take down your slowly developing planet later.
fleet composition? - I've found that a swarm of 7 tiny ships with 2 lazers2 each are a nice deturent. They work well for attacking, and they have enough of a punch early game to bite into anything coming your way. They also make good attackers. They are cheep enough that you can pump them out while doing other things and keep any losses replaced. Of course this only works early game.. later on more dangerous things are out there.
Personaly I prefere to attack them before they attack me. The derengi want nothing to do with me if I have a swarm of attack ships out ripping the Yor Collective to bits so I can expand into my planets that the they are squatting on.
Watch the AI is a great tip.
Also strategy has a great deal to do with the map size, number of oppoents, and so on.
The way you play on a LARGE map with 9 oppoenents is very different than the way you play on a HUGE map with 5 opponents.
Your economy is very important so you'll want to research economic techs early. Morale is important too. Happy people allow a higher tax rate. I also make it a point to research sensors quickly so I can get a couple of survey ships out to help my flagship reap annomalities.
I go with an "all labs" strategy which basicly means I build no factories and use "focus" to build social projects or ships. I start off by rush building a lab then normal build a morale structure and an economic structure. I fiddle with the spending sliders pretty much every turn for a long time to keep morale at 100% (for faster population growth) and my tax rate as high as it can be for that max morale. Sinc I use "all labs" my research spending is kept at 100%.
Whatever strategy you use you will want to devote some planets to economy. Build enough production buildings so you can build at a decent rate and then build only economic buildings on the planet. Only build starports on planets that you intend to produce shipts at.
If you establish trade routes with other races they are less likely to attack you which means you get to chose when to go to war. And don't forget to bribe other civilizations to fight each other. The more they fighte each other the less attention is focussed on you. 
If 2 civs have missiles as their main weapons and are fighting each other you can trade ECM tech to both civs to help keep them in a protracted war. Or if on is significantly stronger just trade ECM to the weaker civ.
Another tip for learning is to turn OFF tech trading and tech brokering.
Using tech trades is in itself a whole system where there are balances and subtle tricks and things. So leave that out at first and focus on learning to build up your own tech and your planets.
Then later once you understand your economy and production and research, you can go back and turn those back on and use trading of tech as yet another advantage.
For now though I suggest off to both, then focus on keeping up with them on production as your difficulty level increases.
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