Fanatic Xenophobe, materialistic, despotic empire. Wormhole FTL. Missile ships. Also pick fast breeder
Immediately get 2 science ships and 2 construction ships. Scan everything and build wormhole stations in every system. Focus on growing pops on your home planet and sink just enough food to fully feed your planet and sink the rest into energy credits.
When you encounter your first hostile alien start building your fleet so you get 750 war power. Focus on building a sizable mineral cache so you can train more ships at a later date. When you contact your first alien empire play nice but build your fleet until you get 2k war power. Train 10 attacking armies and declare war; seize their home planet.
Decimate their fleets and select "light bombardment". Bomb home planet until it's fortification is zero and then attack with troops (they don't need a comander if you completely bombed them) once you capture their home planet you automatically gain all of the enemies planets. Enslave all of them and switch any buildings to mineral and food. Bonus points if you get a governor with the +15-25% slave output trait.
I'll have to try that. I'm around year 2230 not even sure if that early or mid game still. I haven't played wormhole yet. I really like hyperlanes. Also, the main game I'm in now I spawned next to a fallen empire and the rest of the stars near me all have crap resources. I'm getting my fleet built up now, I've got a few destroyers I'm proud of. I'll have to build way up and try taking on a rival...