SPAM JUMP DRIVE BITCH.
I've been playin' Stellaris a good bit, and my first game has been pretty fucked. Extradimensional invaders fired seemingly pretty early (utterly wiping out the empire they spawned in), and coincidentally right next to me - and the fallen empire that awakened in response did fuck all to help, leaving myself and an ally the sole bastions against this threat to the galaxy. They destroyed all life on four worlds across three systems before I could muster the strength to stop them - and even that required a drastic upgrade to my fleet and technology. By the end I had killed more than half of their vessels, sealed the portal, and secured peace.
Then, since I was feelin' like bein' a dick and had nowhere to expand, I rivaled that very same awakened empire for having the gall to call themselves protectors of the galaxy when they sat in their ringworlds without lifting a finger for half a century. Shortly thereafter they declared war on me, and I realized my mistake - their fleet was an armada beyond my wildest imaginings, with technology I couldn't hope to approach. After the first conflicts the war ground to a halt, with my allies and I constructing vessels even as I made quick strikes on their worlds, analyzing the wreckage of individual ships and stations for any advantage I could find. Finally, the day came - my allies' combined fleet was intercepted and nearly broken, but my reinforcements caught the enemy off-guard and utterly annihilated them. I'm now the proud owner of a ringworld, and soon to be the most powerful force in the galaxy.
Dis game's pretty dope.