Only 4k? They usually get up to several tens of thousands in strength and the strength disparity means that it's impossible to make peace with them until you get their strength down, unless you maybe pay out the ass, but even then if you give practically everything, they won't, but there's no 'what does it take to do a peace treaty' button.

I see a Mimot and switch everything to military production.  Those furry cute-looking war mongers won't get me.  You do bring up a good point though about them being war mongers.  I'd like to know how the heck they get so far ahead so early

Perhaps there should be some balance tweaks here and there but Stardock has been pretty open about the design of races  being imbalanced by intention.  It makes the game interesting and you can always choose not to play them.  Or make your own Mimot faction and nerf them.

Nothing quite like seeing an enemy fleet at your doorstep to get you hooked into the game and min/max your way to survival.  I find it quite fun even when I lose.