Can someone give me some tips

[InvaderGrim]

Im struggling a bit keeping up with the ai, particular the 3 affinity factions on every map. Ill just be able to make an engineer and ill be surrounded by 4 cities and being told im being threatened because of my "pathetic military" when i have like 7 units, i just dont know what im missing

[Zheppon]

i mean it literally says you have pathetic military so i suggest to make more unit so you are not perceived as weak

[Miko]

- First research should almost always be the lab, since it drops tier 1 research from 5 turns to 3
- The moment you meet them, you should offer peace to the Acrin and Zephon, since Acrin infantry will destroy EVERYTHING they encounter in a 1v1, and there is no easy way to deal with wardens early
- Grab every outpost around your base. This is the ONLY time solo or duo infantry usable, since your goal is not to kill everything nearby, but to secure knowledge of your surroundings.

For the NPC factions specifically, DO NOT FIGHT THEM. As mentioned, both Acrin and Zephon will wipe the floor with early units, and killing bases requires midgame forces.

[djheat]

Always be producing units. Early game it can take a while to make a single unit, so you never want your unit producing buildings to be idle. You don't have to beeline for it, but do try and get a second unit producer researched early too so you can start producing there. Use influence to buy resources on the market if you're ever too broke to have a unit cooking. Also try not to lose anyone out exploring, travel in twos and run like a baby if you find something too tough. You should be impressing NPCs with your military in no time

[Ail]

From watching streams I think one of the most missed game-mechanic is how population works.
Basically people just kept building buildings when they were at the population-cap and didn't understand how they became just more and more inefficient.

Each building except for the habitat itself needs 1 population. If you have more buildings than population the population is shared between your buildings. So if you have 6 pop but 8 buildings each building only works at 3/4 efficiency and more buildings won't help you at all unless your population catches up with the amount of buildings you have.

Habitat is a Tier 2 tech. If you skipped it you will inevitably fall more and more behind.

Of course there's other potential things that could have gone wrong. But I think this is by far the most likely one.

[badassunicorn]

Contrary to other people I'd say: fight everyone, if you wish to do so.
At least on default difficulty.

You can kill a Zephon Warden - if you have frag grenades and rocketeers.
So, first priority: Research.
2nd priority: be efficient.
I prefer to have a lab in forest and have 'Exobiology Station' researched than to build two labs early on b/c that'd require two building slots.
Same for food etc.

You need two barracks and a constant stream of units to cover for losses! Because you're going to loose units from the beginning.

And don't go alone in that good night! Have your guns in a group while scouting. Far better survivability ^^