Custom Races: There are some racial bonuses that you just can't touch via the points system, let alone being able to take those racial bonuses and stack on the bought points. However, they have more points to spend so you could get more different things, they have no inherent negatives (something new in TA, some stock races now get minuses). By use of a custom race though, you can swap up tech trees and super abilities. Taking the Krynn tree and the Super Diplomat is a fun influence game...but so is the Korath tree and Super Diplomat....gawd I love that Dark Influence building.
Slow but Steady: That pretty much sums up the Arceans lol. Stock speed in TA got upped to 2, Arceans get a -1 speed and not many engine techs. You can actually make a better race than the stock Arceans with a custom race due to that -1 speed.
What race has the best tech tree: This one is hard to answer. It will all depend on your opponents, size of map, types of victory conditions, which way the wind is blowing in the country next to the mountain.... Start your first game out as the Terrans to get use to the changes in TA as their tree is fairly the same as the DA tree. For the biggest change in gameplay, try out the Thalans. They start out very slow tech/planet-wise but damn when they get rolling!
Ship strength, IMHO with tech trading on an oppertunistic Iconian makes for a nasty beheomoth of a ship in HP. Those buggers can take a beating.
