It took me a bit to figure out how to even play as Terran empire but the sheer difficulty feels crazy. I'm playing on Captain so medium I guess, you start day 1 with a economy that has huge minuses and needs to be micro managed with the market so you don't go bankrupt, the coalition of hope forms 1.5 years in with 3x times the fleet strength you start with.
I was able to defeat them by drawing one fleet away and pouring everything into my military then catching one fleet alone and just barely scarped by after like 8 years with the win.

I then dealt with a economy that simply cant be fixed we are talking even with subsides, job management and, no expansion -100 a month in food, minerals, consumer goods, and like -50 in energy. The few things they are making can not be sold to make up the difference. I also had to put down FOUR slave revolts on every major planet. At which point I gave up. Is it really meant to be this punishing? Has anyone managed to play this race for more than a few years?