Sophons Expert Guide - Endless Space 2 - Turns 1-30

First 30 turns of 4XAlchemist playing Sophons from Endless Space 2 on Endless Difficulty with Hard Pirates. Extensive commentary on multiple Sophon-specific and general strategies. Now with game sounds and music =)

This is the longest of our videos because the Sophons take a ton of tweaking every turn to optimize. I hope you would agree that it's worth it! (IMO it's the only way for these guys to keep up with other races)

Enjoy!

Highlights:
Turn 8 - fighting our neighbor for outposts
Turn 12 - Hero comes home at level 4 just in time
Turn 19 - finish "win 3 battles" Sophons quest
Turn 22 - Sophon attack ships with upgraded lasers unlocked. Discussion of optimal builds for early Sophon attack ships
Turn 30 - upgraded ships, upgraded systems, upgraded weapons, upgraded planet settling. Sophons off to the races.

Turn 30 Savegame file on Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5su...

My notes on the topics covered in this video:
Hero can stay out since he's an awesome fighter until the turn just before you finish MIC
Building a second booper early is better than spending the dust because you need the dust to rush your first outpost
Look to upgrade the north side early and get early ships to go make the wars
Scout ships suck as combatants, but at least have 2 weapon slots. Use missiles and go en masse
Every time your planets have something new to build and you have somewhere to expand, look to get better ship upgrade, laser, and CP techs
Early market is a huge benefit since you'll be dust starved and will want to do a fair amount of ship upgrading. No dust is too much
Do the military quests and try to fight your three battles before turn 20 so that you can get the laws quest finished in your first election. This makes things go way quicker.
Hero leveling: Move, Move, Science, Fleet dmg, Fleet dmg, Laser dmg
Soph Kilo class ships have 3 defense slots. This makes them ideal for surviving and carrying beams to wreck opposing fighters. Don't go overboard on it though.
/u/The176thPbPGuy on reddit did an analysis of all ES2 ships and in fact the sophons have the strongest carriers in the game: they are a late game military powerhouse -   / talking_ship_comparing_es2_faction_ships  
Still experimenting with all lasers or a beam/laser mix. If all lasers clump in the middle flotilla. If mix spread out evenly to match your opponent