The simple answer is to play on normal if hard is too hard.

If they only have 7 planets then I'm sure you can crush them relatively easily before they can finish building any of those things. If not, then you have a nice endgame showdown on your hands.

Look, i love your Mod, but maybe tone down the AI cheats just a little, it's very strange to see an enemy that is cornered and economically crippled have enough money and Pop to keep making those Special and Expensive Units.

Also i stopped playing and rage quit when those special units started conter attacking and destroyed my main fleet, and while i was scrambling to make a force to match them, they just keept making more Bellators. One thing is the enemy is putting all his funds to make 1 Bellator as a last resort, but to keep making them over and over even when they have soo little planets and resources it's infuriating.

Sorry aboth the rant, but just plz think aboth it.

You can always just run with the idea that papa Palps has secrets and contingency forces. Takes a little bit of head canon roleplay but it works well enough for those situations.