So I've been playing for a little while, and have often learned the hard way what NOT to do. When I remember, I write them down in my phone. This is what I have so far; hopefully you can learn from my mistakes.

Don't Shunt into Gas Clouds (Disorder)

Stay 10" away from the Rear-arc of mine-laying units

Smalls are very vulnerable to Mines and Nukes

Predict where enemy units will go, and move accordingly

Smalls are early game Torpedo bait, so either bring a lot, Reserve what you have, or provide SRS coverage

Shields exponentially grow in effectiveness

When possible, move units to fire PD at SRS before they activate, so you can shoot them again when they activate

Move Carriers early to launch Tokens, but last after Tokens Launched

Don't approach within 4 inches of a Planetoid (and table edge) when facing Gravity weapons

Use torpedoes to kill off damaged small ships

Always assume you'll be pulled into a Gravity Well

Try to hide in Terrain when you FSD Escape; even Asteroids!

Dindrenzi

Always deploy along the board edge, and only Flank from Reserve; all but Gunships should avoid the board center.

Use two mine-laying units together to saturate the board with Mines

Shunt Escape ASAP (Strike hard, Strike fast, GTFO!)

So, I've almost finished painting all three Cruisers... Maybe painted for a few hours this week. I have no idea what I was doing with my spare time, if I even had any. Oh! I was utterly crushed by a Pathogen Fleet... again. Maybe they're the Dindrenzi Kryptonite? t

It only took me 10 months or so, but I finally found a paint scheme for my Cruisers that I like.

There is still some detailing to do, and I have yet to attempt my engine glow idea and object source lighting, but this will be good enough for the Michigan GT.

This works better than my old scheme, simply because I added the copper in appropriate places. Before, I essentially had a two-hue scheme:

Grey/Yellow

Grey is essentially a background color, so it became background. The yellow was so dark and unsaturated it basically blended in. Here's a cruiser with just the Gun Racks painted

The gun racks stand out, because it's the only thing with orange. But gun racks aren't the most important part of the model (that's the rail cannon), so I placed the copper in a few more places to draw your eye through the model, in the direction of the Rail Cannon.

I'll try some bright gold highlights on the rail cannon... Later. I need to finish these two cruisers, finish the Escorts, fix my Heavy Cruisers so I can start painting them, paint four Tier 1 Models, and paint the equivalent to two Patrol Boxes... In 5 weeks.

Maybe I won't be using the lists I planned for the Michigan GT after all...