>>2128180
Yes but at first blobbing was kinda limited and then they've changed the game so you can get late game techs within the first 50 years or so. After they've dropped the purple mana as main resource of expansion, expension became much cheaper and trivial. The game emphasizes that your civilization has just discovered ftl technology. This shouldn't mean that you immediately should be able to colonize and conquer distant worlds from the get go in my opinion.