Vodyani Meta 6 years ago

I love playing the vodyani, I think its extremely fun to steal population and have ships that are your means of colonising, but it feels like no matter how hard I try to vary my gameplay, doing things in different orders like focusing colonising lots or making lots of leeches early on and such, I always fall behind. I don't think its just me either, I've heard similar complaints from friends of mine. We all like the Vodyani for thier unique playstyle, but it just feels like they are always on the backfoot, falling behind imediately. So this brings me to my question.

Is there a sort of "meta" way of playing the vodyani, like a way of playing that is arguably the most effective way of not falling behind early on both in terms of score, tech, industry, military etc. Like is the way to go early on lots of leeching? lots of colonising? should colonies be close together, or placed wherever there is an opportunity to settle. So many related questions and I'm curious to hear what you guys have to say. Please let me know how it is you try and get ahead of the game as Vodyani, or at least to not fall behind early on because of overcolonisation or over focusing one area of play.