First TA game played

I started my first TA game a few days ago. I am playing as the Arvok Foundry, a custom race with Dread Lord-style ships and Iconian tech tree against Terrans, Korath, and Krynn. I chose a Huge map and got stuck in the lower corner of it. The Terrans were in the middle, the Korath were in the upper corner, and the Krynn were in the left corner. I battled my way out and took over the Terrans. The surrendered despite having about 25 planets to my 12 or so, and much better stats across the board. About that time, the Krynn demanded that I hand over my homeworld. I refused and they declared war. They started slaughtering my fleets with beam weapons until I started making shielded ships. Never have they tried invading my planets though. I don't think they ever got Planetary Invasion (the Terrans did but they couldn't handle my population bonuses and Super Breeder ability). We have been fighting for a long time now, but the Arvok have come from being no match for the Krynn to being almost equal to them. The only thing keeping me from overrunning their border worlds is that my manufacturing planets are about 18 weeks' travel from the war zone. They have just recently started using armor, guess they got tired of Arvok mass drivers shredding their undefended warships. Also of note is that I have medium ships while they use tiny and small ones, not sure why.

Now on to the glitch report. When the Krynn and Korath ended their war, I was able to speak with the Korath and get a Research treaty with them even though I have never met them on the map (too busy fighting off the blasted Krynn to explore up their way). Also, I spoke with the Terrans before any fighting occurred despite their lack of a Universal Translator (what can I say, the Arvok are master linguists). When I build a base on a resource, it asks me if I want the base twice or even four times; definitely a glitch to be fixed. It never happens for an economy base (I don't normally use military or influence bases). I'm not sure why the Terrans gave me their whole empire so easily.

I'll update when I play this game more.