Hey all!

I have been playing as the Sophons for a number of games now and I have only won once. No matter what, the Lumeris always get a score victory on me. Even if I rush Militaristic, if the Lumeris are not my first or second target they always get ahead. And eventually beat me. 

Does anyone have any tips or ideas? Should I just ZERG them as soon as possible.

General Game Scenario:

-Difficulty: Normal

-4 competitors (Cravers, Sophons, Lumeris, Vodyani)

-Speed: Fast or Normal

Thanks! 

Why not turn off score victory? I've always only played with Supremacy and or Elimination

Focus your empire on going tall. Choose your systems wisely.  The lumens advantage is colonization. As sophons you need to use the religous law to keep your dust up until first election.  Your goal during the first five turns is to find a multi planet system with annomolies or strategics. Preferably both. Colonize one system at a time to make sure your always growing population.  Your goal should always be to find a system with colds for science and a system with hot planets for production.  You have the fastest ships in the galaxy. Use them, focus on exploring and curiosities. Equip your colonizer with multiple engines warp. And take the good systems when you find them. Its also key to research markets right away so you can sell your excess stuff to buy food to grow.   Your goal is two fold early. Set up production and science systems. You should be out researching your opponents and ninja the military tech to get to ten cc and a resource based beam. Soon as you have that industry planet going by turn thirty you should be starting your preperation for war. The trick to sophons is to scout all curiosities asap and then block slow or invade whatever you can to slow them down