You’ve played in other games before, so I presume you’re all familiar with the “early host run” that happens when everyone hits End Turn early. It gives us a nice advantage in that it stores us up a few spare hours before we have to submit the next turn. Keep your eyes open, though; sometimes, if we collect enough spare hours, the next host time will simply advance a day. We’ll never have fewer than 24 hours to complete any given turn (unless something is bugged), but there’s no guarantee once you’ve submitted your turn that you won’t have to come back before Host time.

Since you have all that extra time, I’d like to suggest some extra reading:
http://www.planetsmagazine.com/races/colonies/colonialguide/colonial-basics-a-primer-for-new-players/

I know; only one of the eleven players is playing the Colonies. But the article is generally useful (apart from the Cobol references), so you should be able to glean some good information out of it.

If it bores you or you have extra time, here’s another:
http://www.planetsmagazine.com/strategy/strategyguides/the-importance-of-staying-hidden/

The Cyborg and the Privateers, on the other hand, each live in slightly different worlds than the rest of us. Our Borg player needs to read this:
http://www.planetsmagazine.com/races/borg/borgguides/on-networking-or-keeping-your-head-in-the-clouds/

The Privateer needs to master this:
http://www.planetsmagazine.com/strategy/strategic-knowledge/straight-talk-about-the-tractor-beam/
(and so do their neighbors, and… heck, everyone.)

Now, if you don’t have time, don’t worry about it; the things you don’t know WILL kill you, but at least you won’t see them coming so it’ll be quick. But still painful.

If you have spare time, you may be tempted to read up on other guides here at the Planets Mag or the old stuff out at Donovan’s. If so, take every single word you read with a grain of salt. Donovan’s was written for the old TimHost game model from the 1990s; most of the Mag guides currently up were designed for the PBP system, which we aren’t using here. So go read the guides — but know the PQ system by heart.