I am re-reading the rules cover to cover, as now with the added context of game experience, I figured I would retain and analyze better. And, verilly I was correct. Some interesting rules that were somewhat misinterpreted or not understood:
1) During Status phase, everyone goes in turn order (based on Strat Card) to determine who has succeeded at what victory condition. If you were going to win on Turn Order 6, and I hit 10 pts on Turn Order 1, I win, and you don't - it is not a tie. The only way a tie can happen is if someone draws the "end the game now" card. Interestingly, this makes the Naalu's power far, far, far nastier. It also helps to balance Imperial a little bit - cause if you don't win on your turn, you will be the last to claim your victory conditions at the turn's end - and to think, you may have just drawn the victory condition that someone before you in turn order might win with.
2) You cannot bombard with a Dreadnought unless you are landing ground forces. You *can* with a War Sun. Yes - it explicitly says this in the rules.
3) Ground combat does not even occur without ground forces from both sides. That means that a world without GFs and with PDSs will not fire the PDSs during a hostile landing. It *does* mean that they fire anyway even if the last troop is nuked from orbit during the landing. In other words - last game, Joce could have used her War Sun (but not Dreadnought) to nuke the ground troops on Ron's (Shmoo's?) world, then landed troops and bloodlessly destroyed the PDSs on the next turn (but not the same turn, as both would have to be declared at the same time). If instead she had been impatient and used the War Sun at the same time as the troops (taking 1 turn not 2), the PDSs would have fired regardless.
4) I think everyone knows this, but I thought I would underscore - you can move through an already activated system, even if it includes the corpses of your foes. In other words, if Player A sets up a cruiser patrol on the way to their home world, Player B can activate the patrol system, move a dreadnought in, nuke the cruiser, then activate the homeworld and move everything that isn't the dreadnought in and nuke the homeworld. That means that even without warfare it is pretty easy to get by patrols - though it does take two actions, and two command counters. Really, between warfare, flank speed, this rule, and card like in the dark of space (or whatever it is) - nowhere is really safe.
5) The Yssaril cannot skip twice in a row - but they can skip twice in a turn. In other words, they can't do this: play-skip-skip-play-play - but they can do this: play-skip-play-skip-play-skip-play. That is a very nasty power.
6) You can't build a stardock in a system that has enemy ships.
7) Yes - the rules explicitly state the "I now spend" stuff rules we were using - if the victory condition says "I Now Spend 20 resources" - you have to have 20 resources/trade goods ready to go in the Status phase, and have to spend them when it wheels around to your turn.
Trade Agreements can only be broken by warfare or duing the Status Phase. They cannot actually be broken during the Trade Stategy Phase.
9) Voting starts to the left of the speaker and goes counter clockwise. Speaker is always last to vote.
10) Sabotage runs (a fighter doing the Luke Skywalker thing to a War Sun) is actually *much* harder then I thought. Basically, you have to penetrate Outer Defenses (9 or 10 on a d10), then roll again for Inner Defenses (10 on d10). If you succeed, the War Sun dies. If you fail, the fighter dies. Destroyers still get to shoot them first. For those doing the simple stats - that is a 1 in 50 shot. If you want to waste your fighter like that - I say, may the force be with you.
