Has anyone tried this? The +50 military doesn't give you any "free" production, but it gives me 25/turn on Sol, giving a 3-speed colony ship every other turn. Newly colonized planets are at 17/turn, giving a colony ship every third turn.
This strategy seems to let me convert my starting 1000 BC into colony ships as fast as possible. This seems faster than +2 speed.
With this strategy, if there's a 2nd inhabitable planet around Sol, I should land my initial colony ship right away. I'll get it back in 2 turns, but I'll have many more colony ships at turn 10 compared with not doing that.
The only disappointing bit is that +50 military is useless after the opening, because none of the bonus production is free. But if you've won the game in the opening, who cares?
I didn't try but I know some people said that +50 military was a good altrernative to +speed picks. If you play with loose clusters or scattered, I think it can be worthwhile, but you must be able to sustain the continual expansion. This is the hardest part IMHO.
This lets you crank out 100% military for awhile, converting all your starting BC to colony ships as fast as possible. Because you get more new colonies, you get more BC and more colony ships.
The only question is "at what point do you turn on research"? It seems like you should leave enough population on each planet so you get 25/turn or 17/turn military.
When you research, do you rush to impulse drive for the extra +1 speed? Or rush to trade so you can get your freighters moving? I also find that rushing to nano-metal composition isn't such a bad idea either; getting my industrial capital built means that I can start working on trade goods.