Minor Races?

Cannon fodder mostly in my experience. And hogging resources. They're good for making money as well (sell them techs). Occasionally I 'adopt' a minor race just for the hell of it.

They add a bit of flavour to the game.

Minor Races are Races that are usually very satisfied with just their homeworld and don't expand.

You can trade with them or take their nice planets, that's what they're for.
Sometimes, when my legions are plowing around the galaxy for my never ending drive to expand my empire, I let one or two Minor Races continue existing to soothe my conscience..

They have been known to go on the rampage occasionally, too. One game had the Snathi wipe out the Altarians....

Minor race = speed bump (if you play like I do ). Others more benevelolently use them as trade partners.

Well, there are two reasons I love minor races. One of them is because they usually make unusable plantes into 16+ PQ ones when they move in to the galaxy (yes, for me to conquer). And other reason is just as another user said: They add flavor to the mix. It's just very cool to have a minor joining the party. I just wish they were more stronger and more threatening.

They have been known to go on the rampage occasionally, too. One game had the Snathi wipe out the Altarians....

Wow. That never happened to me! I would love to see that just because the Snathi are that evil

I've had Scottlingas and Jessuins take over major races before.

I have two uses for minors, though I only use the first minor I find (and simply invade the rest).

1) Trade routes with an allied minor race are often very, very profitable.

2) You can donate planets to an allied minor race to prevent your enemies from ever getting them, which saves you the trouble of managing the planet, hinders your enemies, and clears up the minimap. I usually do this on Gigantic maps with lots of planets.

They make great trading partners, since their one and only planet is usually very well developed and highly populated. You can trade with them without worrying about strengthening a potential rival; and you can generally get all the money they make from the route back since they are chumps when it comes to negotiating.

They make great proxy warriors when you want to distract an AI without actually declaring war; just make a powered-up military starbase and a few slow but powerful cruisers, plus some cheap defenders, and use them to reinforce the minor enough to bleed your target's strength nicely. This works particularly well if you're planning a surprise attack and the minor is nice and far away, since the AI will send much of it's fleet far away from where it will be needed. Giving the minor a few fast transports can be fun too. You can use them to swipe AI resources as well; park a few powerful ships near a resource belonging to the AI and give them to the minor. Have a few constructors nearby!

They will kindly find and claim resources you can't defend and develop and hold them until you need can.

And just once in a long while, they'll surprise you by kicking some ass!

Sometimes it's fun to give 'em a few PQ5 or 6 planets just for kicks.

In every game I've had with the Snathi, they are always picking fights and are usually the ones starting the war.

yeah, i give minor races planets sometimes. The only danger with that is, if they are invaded(usually they never are, there soldier raiting is usually high)

I've just thought of a tactic for my next game, i'm gonna ally with one give them ships and techs, and use them as my little mercenaries to declare war on other civs I don't like, those little guys can give a civ a kick in the ass sometimes (onetime a minor sucsesfuly invaded several of my planets).

Hmm, I have not seen any very active minor-race, they just seem to sit there.

In my current game a minor-race asked for my help against my enemy the Iconians. I happened to have a decent medium class ship, Seastar-1800 (designed for fighting the Iconians in this game), near the minor-race planet. I bounced the minor-race a few BC's in the request and promised them the ship. I then flew the ship right up to their planet and signaled for their crew to board. I was hoping to see the minor-race do some damage and if that went well, lend-lease a few fleets to them.

I have monitored the actions of Seastar-1800. It has done nothing. One whole year of sitting right where I left it. The entire Seastar class has gone to obsolescence. Seastar-1800 has seen no action in the hands of the minor-race. Not a single thrust or weapons test. They didnt even put it in orbit.

Note to self: Send ship manuals to minor-race or take minor-race out of the gene pool.