One of my rare Military Conquests (usually Political or Cultural,  I have Tech Victory switched off);  only my Altarian Resistance and the Jagged Knife remained at the end.

  Gigantic galaxy;  9 races;  8 minor races;  crippling;  Super Organizer;  Pacifists party.

  I started fairly close to the centre of the galaxy and made an alliance with the strongest military Krynn (also their attitude with other races influenced my decision;  I had to give them an economic treaty to persuade them but my economy was good enough to get some useful techs into the bargain.)

  The Thalans were in a corner with my planets between them and the other races.  They were mostly hostile so war seemed probable and their military graph was a little larger than mine.  When war did come,  other races who were at war with them were too far away to help me much.  It was close,  that the occasional Korath and Krynn fleet attacking the Thalans were possibly significant effects.  After having to combat the Thalans mostly myself,  I eventually conquered their planets myself.  

  2 other neighbours (Yor and Iconians) were during this war wavering between hostile and wary.  I was neutral and they were good,  and evil.  My Altarian Resistance empire was now large and my Altarian-Krynn alliance seemed sure to conquer the galaxy;  I traded many techs to my ally (later I was glad I had not been lazy and thus over-generous,  even though they wouldn't be in a position to give any techs away to anyone) who were at war with nearly everyone.

  Later,  Yor and Krynn were my allies,  both at war with the Iconians (but I was not).  As the Iconians became weaker,  so they became more friendly.  Political Victory soon?

  Suddenly (well,  it seemed sudden from within my complaceny),  TWO megaevents changed the game.

1)  The Jagged Knife took over many planets,  including about 50% of my major factory production and some "trade goods" in the centre of the galaxy where I needed them.  I needed fast transports from my distant planets to recapture them.  Here too were my fleets of fighters and my military starbase and nearby four mining resources.

2)  A Krynn leader was assassinated during a meeting,  supposedly by the Altarian Resistance.  Thus our alliance was terminated and we were at war.  The turn before this,  the only race (Iconian) outside my alliance was "friendly".  The turn after this event,  they were "close".  Doh!

  A few negotiations later,  it was Altarian-Iconian-Yor against Krynn.  Iconia and Yor soon surrendered (to me);  they had been almost certain to lose so I had been generous giving them many techs in the hope that they would weaken Krynn before.  The former Iconian and Yor planets turned out to be usefully strategic (except that the Yor ships had mostly become pirates) and fairly close to the Krynns' region.

  So it was me (Altaria) versus Krynn.  I had to make peace with the Jagged Knife;  the war with Krynn was another close one (some of their fleets getting through to my "stronghold" the military starbase area;  my researching the most useful techs just in time;  etc.),  too risky to have to spot minor race enemy fleets on this gigantic galaxy map.  Also,  there was no-one else to send freighters to/with;  my economy changed wildly whenever some of my moral or economic mining starbases were destroyed.

  As the Thalans had,  Krynn had about the same military strength as me (according to a graph in a magazine article ) but merely armour defence against my missiles.  Hah!  They did make some missile defences later,  too much later.  I had the zero-point armour so that my large ships were able to be fast and stronger such that their mass driver weapons had less value than my defences (on a fleet to fleet basis).  I welcomed planets with the Orbital Fleet Managers where the Krynn orbiting ships could all be wiped out in one movement point.

Final alignment:  neutral;  game time:  12 years;  score:  57050.