Often I see minor races pop up and within half a galactic year they are absorbed into some other major races empire. Over all I'm a little upset that minor races don't have as much staying power (although I have seen one or two over the course of several games build up a huge home fleet and stick around the whole game). Usually they are just a liability.

So I had this idea and tried it out in my last game to set up pseudo-minor races. On a large sized galaxy I had 7 other races plus me making 8 total major powers. However for 2 of the major powers, I dropped their Intellegence rating down to around beginner area where as the other races were kept somewhere up near challenging or whatever I happend to be playing on (I can't remember off the top of my head at the moment).

Anyway, it worked out really cool. The Thalan and Arceans were the two 'minor' races and as expected controlled only like 4 or 5 systems - maybe 7 planets total. But the fact that they could build starbases and control space 'territory' and what not was lots of fun. Anyway just wanted to tell you all about this neat and successful idea I had.

-W