HUMANKIND

Game setup:

• Hamlet difficulty

• Fast speed

• 1 standard AI player

• large map with enough water and three continents

This setup should give you a lot of space to do whatever you want but not get interfered by the other empire. You can still fight more than enough independent people for the militaristic stars and you have quite some space for the expansionist stars.

I chose the Egyptian culture because of their builder class. By doing so I could create something new in almost every turn. Just be aware of your stability when going this way.

I was real lucky that once I found the other empire in another continent I could force an alliance with them and set all the rules for a great trading. Trading gives you stability and other resources so it's great to have. Besides that, they will not attack you because of the lower difficulty they do not come up with the idea to break the alliance.

In the end I won because I colonized Mars, but you can set your own end game conditions of course.