Yeah, trying to figure out these boards is frustrating.
I don't have much of a story to tell, except my four games I have posted to the metaverse thus far were each accomplished without initiating any war, and not getting in a single war with any of the major civilizations.
Unfortunately I upped the difficulty a notch on my current game, and after failing to gain a foothold in my territory with colony ships to several lesser worlds within my territory (my influence is too strong, and several alien civilizations' colonies erroneously placed within my borders before I could send my upgraded colony ships to all of them), the Iconians thought they'd vent their frustration by declaring war.
Given how peaceful my previous games had been, I was a bit unprepared and hadn't researched any serious military technologies. I quickly traded my technologies with the other civilizations for all their technologies and money, and scurried to put together the best design I could, and converted my 30 or so colonies from engine-upgraded Constructors to the new small warship to defend my colonies. I have had to devoute my research into military technologies, and now am producing warships with a strong defense against the Iconian laser-armed warships. Fortunately, the Iconians seemed ill-prepared to launch their war, and do not appear to even have the capability of producing troop ships, which has given me time to protect most of my colonies.
Unfortunately, my computer is prone to overheating while playing GC2 (I keep spending more and more to cool stuff, and just bought my third computer case in a month that I hope will do a better job at cooling), but just before the last crash, I destroyed an Iconian Influence starbase and an economy starbase at the edge of my territory (where they have a colony near mine). I am researching Planetary Invasion, the technology that allows construction of troop ships, and look forward to driving them out of my territory. They have probably 5 or 6 colonies within my territory, 3 or 4 of them nearing revolt (which would convert them to mine). They have some primitive laser warships with no defensive capability, whereas all of my warships have anti-laser shields and ar armed with Stinger missiles and my newest design has six times the anti-laser shield strength as the Iconian's average ship's laser weapon.
In short, I may have been foolish in not building any sort of military, but my powerful economy allowed me to quickly close the gap and, in the end, its the Iconians proving themselves foolish for declaring war on me with no real capability to do any real damage. I will probably offer them peace after I've taken their colonies that fall within my cultural borders, but only if they make it worth my while by surrendering every last dime in their treasury and every technology they have that I don't already have.
