1 The Psilons have become my race of choice in hard scenarios. The miniaturization advantages at higher tech levels is crazy, and I credit it with being able to pull off wins after losing a Galactic Council vote.

2 Wow. That is just crazy research.

The Psilon racial bonus is one of the strongest in the game, and they get better than average ratings in almost all fields of research as well. This is great when you are the Psilons. It is absolutely terror-inducing when you are another race and meet the Psilons for the first time...and realize they already own half the galaxy.

3 You can do something like that with the Meklar, too. The difference is that when they switch from research to ship-building, the bonus stays the same.

4 The Meklar are a lot of fun to play. But I often have trouble with them, because I get too caught up in building (and building, and building, and building) all those factories. Have to remember to occasionally do something with all that production, other than watch it all disappear into the ravenous maw of clean up spending and more factories.

The Psilon racial bonus does not help production directly, although higher tech levels reduce cost and size. But the Psilons get their research boost immediately, without having to spend on infrastructure, which can help them get off to a faster start. It takes the Meklar a while to really get the virtuous circle going.