So I'm currently working on learning Fanatical Purifier, and struggling a lot with the early game. I already did a game as a Militarist Materialist and did fairly well. Ended up conquering about 40-50% of the map before deciding to try a new game as FP.

Early game is crushing me as FP, though. Usually what happens is I'll have two neighbors, who immediately Defensive Pact with each other, and then both declare war. Early on, I just can't keep up with a war on two fronts and get knocked out. In the other scenario, with just a single neighbor, I'm not really sure when to war dec them. If I wait too long, they Defense Pact with other empires as they pop up. If I go too soon, I just don't have the fleet to deal with a Spaceport, and the AI usually doesn't have enough planets for me to get a high enough warscore.

I heard other people say that you can just pump out corvettes over your fleet cap early on to steamroll another empire. The issue is that in order to keep pumping them out, I cripple my own economy to do so. If I focus more on economy, the defense pacts pop up before I can get the fleet ready.

I'm focusing hard on mineral stations and developing planets for minerals early on. But with the amount I need for an early fleet, on top of making sure I keep expanding and building mining stations, I'm struggling to keep it together. And past that, I'm not sure how to start snowballing if I do win that first early war.

What are some good strategies to use for FP early game?