So, I would like to know if anybody has ever gotten this owned...
I tried playing a gigantic map, rare everything, and very slow research, just to see what it would be like to take the colony phase out of the game. I was off to a decent start, got a precursor library on my homeworld + a double research and double manufacturing (and no ctrl+n cheese) and was smart enough to grab the Magic touch bonus to up my PQ by 2. I was setting up my arrays of starbases, and i realized my placement on the map only allowed for 12, and started getting mildly angry, but no biggie until this happened...
Before I clicked turn (roughly, had to pull an autosave, but close enough):

After I clicked turn I got the event that says "Races deemed evil blah blah, a new faction called the fundamentalists have arisen and taken a few of our planets"

OH NOES! I ONLY GOTZ 2 PLANETS!!!!!
Before i went out of the event, i thought worst case I gotta research planetary invasion, which i hadn't done, and battle back for my homeworld... not exactly what happened:

And the Fundamentalists said: "All your base are belong to us"... seriously... all of them... i lose, and there hadn't even been a war in the galaxy yet.