How do I win?

[Jynks]

I am at a point in my play where I am confused on how to end it all. I seam to be relatively unchallenged in the fights, but wiping out races seams extremely hard as they keep colonizing elsewhere. I've been hitting the Tantik pretty hard but still they have a bunch of planets. Meanwhile I am friendly with a few races, still I feel like I have stopped progressing, all I am doing now is upgrading my weapons and fleet whipping out a colony here and there and colonizing new planets as I now have transforming.

So, yeah.. how exactly can you win this game?

[Bansheedragon]

Depends on the game mode

If you play classic mode, you can win by getting elected leader through the galactic council.
In mission/story mode, you can win by finishing the story missions for any of the 3 major races.

[Zaimat]

Playing classic mode with a very large galaxy/qty of stars - the easiest is likely through the galactic council as Bansheedragon suggests because eliminating everyone is going to take a while. Try to be friendly/ally some races and once you have a good portion of the galaxy under your control, you can be elected emperor.

Things you can try is to get your enemies to surrender by blockading their homeworld, some races will not yield easily though based on their philosophy so you have to eliminate them.

[Jynks]

I was friendly with most of the galaxy then I over expanded and in one turn 6 races declared war on me! So that is really pushed backwards! Even the Barsig sent a nasty message!

At the moment I got pretty far with my relations until then but I couldn't get anyone to ally. Even with "friendly" and the bar right at the far right of happy, they still said no.

What is this about blockading.. are you saying you blockade the planet and then ask fir a surrender.. this is the same as conquest / make ally?

Also, is there any easy way to tell the homeworld?

[Zaimat]

I was friendly with most of the galaxy then I over expanded and in one turn 6 races declared war on me! So that is really pushed backwards! Even the Barsig sent a nasty message!

They got spooked by your expansion rate (3+ new systems within 10 turns can trigger a controversy with other races - based on if their behavior is isolationist and/or if they have a mistrust of your race based on philosophy differences in classic mode). Being allied overrides these factors naturally.

At the moment I got pretty far with my relations until then but I couldn't get anyone to ally. Even with "friendly" and the bar right at the far right of happy, they still said no.

You need to maintain that level for a little while and it will lead to an alliance so keep being friendly with them.

What is this about blockading.. are you saying you blockade the planet and then ask fir a surrender.. this is the same as conquest / make ally?

Also, is there any easy way to tell the homeworld?

By blockading and putting pressure on them, there is a chance they will surrender. Albeit it's a small chance every turn, it can happen with the meeker races. Homeworlds are identified when you view them.