10.1: Playing Against Zerea Takan
The first turn is your best chance to outbid Zerea; after that her bonus tokens will virtually guarantee that she chooses when to move. Unless you are playing Doc Huer you have an advantage in battle over Zerea, so you should use that as best as you can. If you attack her on multiple fronts you can keep her off-balance for a while. She will not be able to concentrate her forces without exposing herself to expensive retreat fire and pass-through fire.
If you expect that your planet will come under attack by Zerea, killsats and orbital defenses work well. Either she has to expose herself to pass-through fire or spend a turn subduing your space forces. Almost any leader will be effective in organizing the defense; Zerea has no combat advantages so she needs a bigger force than most leaders.
If you are attacking Zerea, an orbital blockade and bombardment can work quite well. Turn order matters a lot less for space battles, so Zerea loses some of her advantage there. If you can bombard a number of her factories, you can probably afford to outbid her on the next turn.