Well, the best advice I can give would be to take your time getting to those 5 k points and leaving n00b protection. If you're just starting out, you should go slow and figure things out one step at a time. Regarding building strategy however, the common wisdom says you should keep it balanced, Mines, Reactors, Tanks, to get a solid base, then Shipyards and Labs, then everything else. Still, a lot of it depends on your style of play. If you're what we call a turtle, you'll stock up on defense, but this is usually not a good idea, as OG is all about fleets and resource collecting. Again, try taking it one step at a time.