It is not a 'real' cheat, but just something I noticed during gameplay.

In Galciv2 you can design your own ships. In designing ships that match your opponent, you can take a galnce at their current ships to know what your up against now. But what about their ships in the (near) fututre? Or the ships they can upgrade to, when war is declared?

If I want tot start a war and have to start building my starships based on my enemies current ships, they can be (and have been) outmatched by the time they are built and arrive in my enemies' space.

So if you order your warmachine to build starships for a specific war, you want to have it bulding starships that are more 'future proof'.

Well, I have something that aided me in my last 'incident'.

The tech tree is so extensive that it is highly unlikely that an opponant will research all of the tech tree branches.

Simply click on the 'speak to' button of the race your planning to attack in the near future and check his tradable techs.

If they're (far) ahead in beam weapons research and have not yet implemented this in their ships (as was the case with the Drengin in my particular game) it will be wise to equip your ships with extra shields.