Hi all. This is going to be a set of long posts covering all the races, their strengths and weaknesses. I suspect this will create a lot of disagreement, but bring it on! So here we go: 

In ascending order (for dramatic tension). Caveat: This is for Endless Difficulty, Standard Settings with Economy Victory disabled (it's just too quick - sorry!), based on several hundred hours of game play. Some of these factors will become less relevant at lower difficulty settings. Nor will I be suggesting any changes based on these ratings. Asymmetrical game play will always result in some races being slightly more competitive than others, so this is no slight on race design or balance, nor is it saying that any races are 'bad'. Warning - some quest spoilers. Ratings are ordinal not cardinal.

Number 8: Horatio :(

I love Horatio. All Horatio. The concept, the aesthetics, the mechanics. However, the weakness of Horatio comes down to three things that will probably become a theme for the other races: Slow start, map dependent, and poor industry (especially when it comes to ships). The slow start primarily rests on their hero and the Mediterranean planet type. Your hero gets a +20 (more if you luck out with a fertile) food at level 3, which is really nice and completely doable by turn 10 with some explorations and switching into governorship. But the other skills after this don't really shine. What you really need at the start is base FIDSI rather than population or percentage increases, and Farella gets neither of these after the initial two skill points. The problem with the Med planet type start all comes down to Xeno Industrial Industries (XII). A single building on a fertile, temperate planet that gives you 30 industry, only becomes 10 for a hot planet type, and early on this difference is huge. Unless you luck out with a fert/temp planet on your starting system, building stuff becomes all the harder in the early game, where arguably it matters most. Being a dictatorship with only one law slot only compounds the problem. You can't implement enough laws to make up for your early weakness, namely industry.  This leads us to map dependence.

Other than the starting system, what Horatio wants is nice genes to splice, and most ideally you want IDS, as both food and influence come easily to you. Z'vali are a good pick up for the science, but you'll need to luck out with some of the industry, dust, or science minors in order to get the most out of your pop. This either results in a decently strong midgame, or feeling like your 9 food happy population isn't really all you'd hoped for. Assimilating major factions, particularly Cravers, Riftborn, or Vodyani, can make you super strong, but you better be able to win the war that will result from getting the necessary population. Which leads to the final point...

Industry (again) and shipbuilding. Price of Perfection II is a horrific trait and means you will never win a long war. Even if you spent time building your cool fleets beforehand, ultimately, you spent more time than anyone else getting those fleets, which meant less time on infrastructure. Such as it is, you might have lost the war before it started. Switching governments and getting more laws offsets some of the problem, but your opponents can just do the same, only better.

Number 7: Vodyani

I feel like I will get burned for this one. Vodyani are definitely one of the coolest races to play, but they have some major weaknesses that can really spoil their game.

First of all, Tchinomy sucks. Although unlike Horatio Prime, you'll never get the payoff of specialising it for the extra industry. Early on, this matters less due to the incredible Vodyani population stats, but again, unless you luck out with your starting system (or nearby systems), then you'll struggle with that precious industry (although not quite as much).

Varb, your hero, adds very little early on, but later becomes a fantastic fleet hero (and boy, will you need it). The base industry that he adds is better than nothing, but it's not clear that it's really worth it over the fleet skills that you will inevitably use him for.

The real weakness of the Vodyani though, is map dependence. If you immediately discover a minor faction within a turn travel distance, you can have a new Ark up by around turn 11. That's probably slower than all but the unluckiest non-ship bound race and, again unless you lucked out on your starting system, they will probably be outpacing you on FIDS due to your low population growth. After your first Ark, expansion can become painfully slow. You'll need to be building very expensive Leechers, find other minor factions (so not to deplete the existing ones), and protect those Leechers with some fleets of their own. Failing to do so means you'll get behind both in population and expansion really fast, the mid game will come around and you'll feel like you don't have much to show for it. If you don't find a decent system early on, preferably with some strategics and luxuries to sell for buyouts and use for upgrades (the recent nerf to stage 1 luxuries makes this all the more painful), you're in trouble. If you do get the ball rolling however, then Vodyani feel super strong both in science and economy. It's just such a big 'if'. I've played Vodyani games where I've felt nigh on unstoppable. I've played others where I've just sat around waiting to die. And it's all be decided right at the start on the map roll.

But Vodyani are about ships, and space vampirism, not building fancy empires, right? The aforementioned Varb does make for an incredible fleet hero, with huge enhancements to energy weapons and shields. But Vodyani ships themselves are kind of average. They don't have a whole lot of raw firepower as reflected in their weapon slots, instead emphasising speed and defence.  Which is kind of contradictory. If your fleets are designed to sit and take the hits, then speed doesn't matter quite so much. The same goes for invasions. Your manpower is going to be low, as Vodyani produce less food, which means you're going to have to equip those siege modules and sit above systems waiting for their manpower to deplete before dropping the troops for the coup de grace. Your ships might be great at zipping around, but they won't really be doing it all that much. Even with Varb, you'll need some other levelled fleet heroes to really lay on the pain, but this takes considerable amounts of time (although it's somewhat helped by the first religious law). By this point, other races will also be sitting on some decent fleet heroes, negating your advantage.

There are some clever moves you can pull with Vodyani Arks that make life easier. Creating siege arks with some leecher modules can be very rewarding (and funny), but this comes at the price of not using that Ark to generate FIDSI, and depends on finding some prey in the near vicinity. It's awesome if it works, but can completely scupper you if it doesn't. High risk and luck are such staples of Vodyani play which is what contributes to their lower score.

Number 6: Sophons

The Sophons struggle on early game industry for exactly the same reasons as Horatio. The cold planet Hekim is no place for XII, and Asa gets no flat bonuses to industry to make up for it. In fact, Asa's starting abilities are actually worse than Farella's in that her science bonuses work out as less early on. Where she does shine (like Varb) is as a fleet hero on energy based fleets, but you'll need to get her to lvl 8 before that happens, which can be tough given the industry problems. When she does though, an energy based Sophon fleet become truly monstrous, even without upgraded weaponry. It's just getting there that's the problem.

Lack of industry, although a serious problem, can be offset early by utilising buyouts. Due to the Sophon trait, this is reasonably easy to get early on, and your initial expansion should be done bearing this in mind. You'll want to maximise your luxury and strategic income so that you can sell them to buy the necessary infrastructure of your empire.

Other than science, where the Sophons really shine is in their early expansion. Getting the Star Boogie law increases the speed not only of your scouts and settlers, but also the food and population transfer ships. This translates to getting your outposts into colonies much faster than expected. The Pathfinders trait is also super helpful in this regard, allowing you to navigate the galaxy much more efficiently.

Omniscience twinned with Oracle of Science at the start can feel like a double edged sword. On the one side, it allows you to produce some super advanced weaponry extremely fast. Other than the industry costs, there is little stopping you from throwing out a small, but hi-tech battlecruiser fleet very early. Enough to vaporise anyone in your way, and win some early wars. The other sharp side of the sword is that although some of those delicious techs are yours to quickly take, there isn't a whole lot you can do with them given prohibitive industry/buyout costs. Furthermore, at Endless difficulty, the AI will be teching up fast enough that the bonuses you get will quickly dwindle. This makes it necessary to have a long, hard think about whether you really need and are able to use that tech that looks so tantalising. Then again, you are a Sophon.

What ultimately puts the Sophons so low down is the lack of early game industry. Big ships, cool buildings, advanced empire, all means nothing if you can't get there in the first place. By the mid game (turn 30+) with multiple systems your disadvantages become less of factor, but so do your advantages given the rate of AI teching.

Number 5: Lumeris

A quick caveat to Lumeris. With economic victory enabled, they would be catapulted to number 3 spot. But unless the dust amount is increased for economic victory, I'll assume it remains disabled.

Lumeris are great, and positions 3,4, and 5 are all very close on this list. Where they (obviously) shine is their dust generation, but unlike the aforementioned races, they can make early use of XII due to Jenes being both fertile and temperate. Yelchin, your hero, at level 3 produces +40 science, and after that makes a decent amount of dust, making for a very solid early game. The early industry is soon replaced with buyout in the mid game. Pay close attention to market events and fluctuations, ad sell when products are in demand. This allows you to accumulate huge amounts of dust, which ultimately transfers into industry via buyout. Whole systems can be made functional very fast, or alternatively, you can invest in your trade companies to produce even more dust and, importantly, science.

The Lumeris' strengths are also their weaknesses. The first of these is the amazing pacifist force law. 15% FIDS boost for each empire at peace (which can now be done very early) results in some excellent FIDS gain early on if you find yourself next to some peace lovers. Even some of the typical warmongers will allow an early peace for a price, but expect them to backstab you as the game goes on. And that is part of the issue with this particular strength - it all depends on maintaining pacifists and the peace. In a multiplayer setting, don't expect anyone to make peace with you early (unless they are Lumeris or Unfallen) for precisely this reason. In single player this is considerably less of an issue. Pacifists is easily the strongest starting force law, and even if the peace is temporary, it's still worth it.

The second strength is the ability to buy, rather than colonise planets. Effectively, this is an industry to dust tradeoff (no need to build colony ships) which is efficient early game, but gets lets efficient the more colonies you have. Buying out a colony and boosting it can become really expensive really quickly, which is fine if you have the dust, but ultimately means that you are making less use of all your FIDS by having a heavy focus on just one. The same goes for minor faction pacification. Whereas other empires can use their dust purely for buyout, you are forced to make serious decisions about where you use yours. Then again, eventually you'll be swimming in so much of it, it doesn't really matter all that much.

Lumeris ships are fairly decent, with a focus on defence, rather than attack, as befits their 'peaceful' outlook. If and when you need to fight a war, you will probably have to depend on your riches to produce more ships rather than better ships in order to win. The upside, is that after a few rounds of laser beams, you can probably payoff your enemies to go and bother someone else for a while. This does result in a lack of versatility. Ultimately, you won't be winning any conquest victories, and any supremacy victories will depend on you bankrolling the more aggressive members of your alliance.

Blockade Breakers as a trait is extremely good, and somewhat overlooked. It means that you can have a trade deal with another player on the other side of the galaxy, picking up a huge dust and science bonus for the distance, without worrying about some Cravers messing it up because they happen to be between you. It's a simple trait, but majorly compounds your advantages.

Selling outposts is something I've yet to find a use for, and I imagine it's because there isn't much of a use for it. I can't think of a compelling reason why a system would be better off belonging to my opponents. It could be used to abuse the expansion penalties, but the Endless AI gets so many buffs, it's not worth it at all.

Ultimately, the Lumeris are a very strong race, but due to their dust dependence, and lack of military power, are not as versatile as some of the other races, nor do they bring anything particularly special to the table that makes them a cut above (again, econ victory notwithstanding).

Number 4: United Empire

My second (recently demoted) favourite race to play. United Empire avoid the early industry problems of Horatio, Sophons, and Vodyani straight off the bat. Raia is both fertile and temperate, and UE actually start with the ability to make XII. Dmitri, although lacking in any straight up industry skills, starts with an innate 10% industry boost, making him one of the few heroes you probably want to start straight away as a governor.

Emperor's Will makes UE one of the most versatile races in the game. At a system level, it functions as an extra buyout mechanic, but unlike dust, it is not affected by inflation. This makes buying out with influence more efficient than buying out with dust in the mid-late game, not that you necessarily should given that it can be used for other things. Whole fleets can be purchased in one turn, and whole systems can become powerhouses in a single turn. Alternatively, you can buyout science, which makes you one of the strongest science races in the game if you choose to do so. Unlike the Sophons, you have the economic power to put the science to use. Your high influence output, along with your military industrialist outlook allows you to enact the strongest law combo in the game - Fleet Fortitude and the final militarist law, making your war machine truly monstrous.

United Empire ships are easily some of the strongest in the game. Your early patrol ships are as good as other races corvettes, allowing for rushes, or early minor faction conquests. Your battleships have a good number and decent mix of weapon and defence slots, allowing for sustained and powerful warfare. Their quest quickly allows for another hero, and both Petra and Hadri are easy to get hold of and work both as fleet and governor heroes.

Like the Lumeris, there are no real weaknesses to UE. Their position reflects that they don't bring anything super special to the table, but rather function as a very strong, but fairly standard race to play. They are more versatile than the Lumeris however, and can ultimately be kitted to fit any play style and are more than capable of winning any victory type. One thing I will recommend is not switching them out to Sheredyn or Mezari (unless roleplaying). The influence boost loss from switching just isn't worth it, and Sheredyn (sadly, I loved the Sardauka... Sheredyn in ES1) in particular are disappointing, only increasing the amount of manpower capacity on your systems. If you need the extra system manpower that badly, you've already lost. You'll die looking awesome though.

Number 3: Riftborn

Riftborn are incredible. Their population are Vodyani sans the food. Their singularities create monster heroes very fast, as well as boosting the FIDS output of their core systems. Their reversed planet preferences allows for super specialised systems, focussing on industry, science, or dust, and given that they do not use food, can quickly and easily colonise all the way up to their cap. This also reduces map dependence, as the Riftborn can colonise systems straight up that other empires will avoid.

Vanguard, like Tchinomy and Hekim, sucks as a starting world. Rather than building XII (immediately get the tech for Titanium though), you'll want to grab the strategic/population industry boost building, but it's no real substitute. What is a real substitute is E, your hero. At level 3, E gives you +40 industry. This twinned with your +5 industry on your population, counteracts any worries about industry early on. In fact, you should expect to be producing more industry than anyone else early game.

This opens up plenty of options for Riftborn. You can go for an early rush, you can get your tech and economy really rolling, or you can go for rapid expansion. They bring the versatility of the United Empire, but with the ability to do it faster.

Riftborn arguably have the best ships in the game. Their raw firepower is unmatched, although their ships are super specialised for the role, meaning that mixed fleets of guardians and attackers is necessary. Going long range missiles is the best bet for your attackers, as you'll want to finish fights as fast as possible to avoid taking damage. The result is that well composed Riftborn corvette and escort fleets can outmatch battleship fleets early on, and if you choose to focus on military the only thing that can really contest you is a Craver fleet - and only then because they pull the numbers. Your battle ships are the same design philosophy - front end damage, and they pack a serious punch. You'll still want to back them up with some support to prevent them taking excessive shots, but in a straight up fight, a Riftborn fleet is almost guaranteed a win.

Strong early game, transitioning into a well defined mid game, and powerful military - so what's the catch? Like Vodyani, it's all to do with population. There are three factors here. The first is that the planets you will take at the start have a lower population cap, resulting in a lower overall population. This is initially offset by the big fids population bonus you get, but other races soon catch up simply due to having greater numbers. Five Riftborn are great, but don't outmatch 15 UE or Lumeris.

The second is that you have to build your population. Early on it's true that your population is usually better than any building you can make, but it's also true that all other empires, after the early game, for slightly less payoff, get their population essentially for free over time. With one or two cheap buildings, they also get this population faster than you can build yours given the increasing costs. Meanwhile that are spending their industry making buildings that further improve their infrastructure. You can always use minor populations to increase your growth - but it will be slower as Riftborn produce no food, and you've now offset your population advantage.

This leads to the final weakness of the Riftborn, which seems like an odd one. Their over reliance on industry. To see this, consider a low industry, science based system of UE. Their population will still be growing, and the system will eventually still have a decent science output due to the population FIDS creation. For the Riftborn, the low industry means that getting the system producing decent FIDS is a long process. You'll probably have to shift a hero just to get a decent amount of pop to get the system rolling. Alternatively, you can send a minor faction pop to the system, but it will either grow slowly or risk starving out. Some of this can be negated by using singularities, but this will lower your overall empire FIDS output considerably. Ultimately, conquest will be the best way to increase your output - which given the Riftborn's powerful ships, is an easier task than for other races.

Number 2: Unfallen

What?! Really you say? The second best? On paper I'd agree, the Unfallen look a little underwhelming. My first few games with them I found myself pretty far ahead after seemingly not doing anything too special. After a few more games with them, they became my favourite race to play.

Like Lumeris and UE, the Koyasil is a great starting planet for industry given that it is both temperate and fertile, making it a prime location for XII. Luna, your hero, is a seeker like Yelchin, meaning that after a quick level 3 from exploration, she will be pumping an extra 40 science. But what the Unfallen really excel at straight from the start is food. You don't build colony ships, or outposts, instead using your celestial vines to immediately colonise systems once they are entangled. This in effect, amounts to huge amounts of free food, as you won't be needing to transfer to outposts. Horatio might also get food bonuses, but this is negated by colonisation early. For the Unfallen, this amounts to having a much bigger population early on than (nearly) everyone else. Population is your primary FIDSI output, and having more of it is straight up better than anything else.

Unfallen share the Lumeris starting pacifist force law, which twinned with your high early population, and a few peace deals, results in you being much further ahead in overall FIDSI than anyone else. One of the other added boons of this is the extra happiness from peace that the Unfallen get with their trait Harmonious, further increasing your FSDI (not industry) simply by being at peace. This essentially is why the Unfallen are second on the list. They out produce everyone but our number 1 spot on FIDSI early on, and by no small margin. If they can maintain the peace, this advantage gets stronger and stronger the more they grow. Along with being a democracy and having high influence output, the Unfallen can use plenty of laws to boost this even further.

But, like the Lumeris, doesn't this just mean that you shouldn't be at peace with them? Again, this is more an issue for multiplayer, but unlike the Lumeris, there are very good reasons to be at peace with the Unfallen early on (later you must declare war, or you will lose everything). Vines to friendly empires provide x2 travel speed and a food bonus to all systems entwined. The food bonus is nice, but the move speed is the real kicker. Being able to quickly transfer population, reach the front lines, and just generally move about faster is often overlooked, but can make all the difference between an efficient, and safe empire, or a sluggish one. You'll probably want 3 vineships fairly early on to maximise your expansion. I've had games where I've been unlucky with nearby systems although still out producing others, so getting those extra viners early can make your reach much better. Prioritise Jungle, Terran, Forest, and Toxic planets, as these are where your Guardians live, giving you a free extra population, as well as a defence and influence boost straight away. Entwining 'special nodes' that don't have planets is also highly recommended. All the benefits go straight to the Koyasil system, turning it into a super system very early.

Unfallen ships early on are not so hot. The corvette is barely better than the scout, and so I recommend skipping Efficient Shielding altogether. Just make some attacker scouts and you'll be fine. Your Vineships are sturdy enough to survive a few rounds from pirates so long as you employ the right tactics, so entwining all but the most dangerous systems in the first 30-40 turns is fairly safe even without attending fleets. After that, and if you want to assimilate the minors, you will need some defence ships with your viners. Fireships are roughly comparable to UE Battleships. What makes them better is the trait Mutual Understanding, that gives all your ships a bonus depending on the number of empires you are at peace with. Being at peace with 5 empires amounts to a 50% firepower boost. That's huge, and means you can potential wield the most potent ships in the game.

Unfallen weaknesses are again tied to their strengths. Your power lies entirely with maintaining the peace with a number of empires. This means finding those peace loving empires and giving them reasons to be happy with you. Make all the deals you can, even if they don't immediately benefit you, to keep people happy. When war does come to the Heart, your ships with your traits will be faster (due to vines) and stronger than your enemies. Just don't go overboard and lose your pacifist majority in the senate.  

A final word on Unfallen. If your systems are vined, and they get Pacific Conversion, declare war immediately. Vined systems count as under influence of Unfallen, and they will start to convert. As an Unfallen player, I have felled whole empires in a single turn using conversion on systems. This is extremely fun to do, and very easy to do given the bonuses you get to influence gain. Ultimately, this makes all victory types other than Conquest completely viable for Unfallen. You can convert whole swathes of your side of the galaxy, form alliances with races on the other side of the galaxy to get the trade bonuses and reach the Supremacy cap. The only real barrier to Supremacy is whether a certain other race has already conquered much of the galaxy already, in which case a Science victory is probably you next easiest bet, followed by a Wonder victory. Speaking of that other race...

Number 1: Cravers

Without a doubt the strongest race in the game. Cravers are terrifying, and spawning next to them requires a complete reemphasis of game style geared towards defence.

Husk is pretty rubbish and soon depletes, but as far as I can tell, it's now coded into the game that Cravers start with another tier 0 planet on their home system, making this a non-issue. Your FIDS output is straight up better than everyone else's until you deplete, making all systems frontend powerhouses that are designed nearly exclusively for the capture of other systems, be it through building fleets, or pumping manpower or dust to support those fleets.

Several major factors compound the Craver advantage early game. The first is your hero. Solus comes by level 3 comes with a plus 20 to food and industry. By level 5, he has potentially plus 20 food, plus 40 industry. After that, he makes for a very strong kinetic based fleet hero. Your first systems will be up and running in no time, grinding out the machinery of the hive to devour new worlds, all the while producing huge amounts of dust and science to fuel and improve your military engine.

The second is your early ships and quest. Take the 'intercept ship' quest option every time. You will be wandering around with a heavy cruiser at around turn 10, which can quickly invade and make mincemeat of any minor factions. This is straight up better than colonisation as it doesn't waste food or industry, and you get the minor faction traits, some of which can be devastating - monstrous infantry (Ghasnast) and hunting culture (Hissho) in particular. Your early scout ship fleets of 6 rather than 4, are capable of taking enemy systems super early if outfitted with siege modules. This allows you initially skip efficient shielding, allowing you to focus on technology for expansion and better weaponry.

Finally for early game, your government Autocracy allows for two initial laws, allowing either for pumping extra happiness and dust, or more industry for fleet construction. The ball gets rolling so fast for Cravers.

When the mid game comes around you'll need to be fighting wars and taking systems, not sitting back revelling in your marvellous empire. Depletion will start to kick in at the point on your starting systems, and your advantage will dwindle quickly. Depleted planets are terrible, so only ever view systems as a means to an end. Careful management of your population will reduce the rate of depletion, but it will come eventually. This is the Craver's only real weakness - if they don't find other empires to kill or fail to capitalise on their early gains, they will fall apart. The war is never over, and the second you forget this, is the moment you will start to lose. When taking new systems, eat population to negate the happiness malus, and get back to shipbuilding as soon as possible. Keep tabs on the happiness of your systems. They will never rebel due to Autocracy, but the FDSI loss is not acceptable if the system isn't depleted. The solution is always to eat your other pops, but make sure to keep a few of them around in the system, so you have the option.

All this results in vast, happy, empires, producing huge amounts of FIDSI. This actually means that any victory type is available to Cravers, and they are probably the only race that can pull off Supremacy without an alliance. The gravy train only really stops when you have depleted the majority of systems and have run out of other population to eat, but if you reach this point too early you've had a bad game, and if you reach this point late, you've probably already won.

Ultimately, it's the massive FIDSI production, and incredibly strong military on both ground and space, that lasts throughout the game that makes Cravers number one.