The Universities of Jol-Nar
I call these guys the brains. The Universities of Jol-Nar have got to be one of the best races to choose. They have so much tech you get to a point in the game where you don’t know what else to get. They have the ability to use both the primary and secondary abilities of the technology card. They also have the ability to spend a command counter from strategy to change any die roll. They do have the disadvantage of getting -1 to all combat rolls during space and invasion combat. They also start with four technologies. Heck they even start with two carriers.
When I am lucky enough to get this race I tell everyone at the table that we may as well choose again because I win. If played right they can be that powerful. The secret is that people who get this race try to also get the technology card. But you know that the tech card will be selected by someone and you get better bonuses if you play the secondary so let someone else take the card. The first round make sure you save a strategy command counter for that tech card. When you play it, get Deep Space Cannons and you will be only one away from War Suns.
Their -1 in all combat is a pain because you are always playing from behind in combat but your tech can outweigh that easily if you get the right technology. You will need trade goods to purchase War Suns once you have the tech so start by getting high resource planets right away. You will also need a lot of command counters. Those negatives to your dice will only matter if you run out of command counters which each give you the ability to reroll a dice.
There is nothing sweeter than getting this race and find out your secret objective is something to do with technology.