my group randomly sets up 3 ring board then we try to destribute systems so they are somewhat equal(the HS) we aim for around 5-6 production touching a home system

Divide the tiles evenly face down and each player chooses a pile.

one good double or triple system for your spacedocks.

some medium strength tiles

some poor tiles

Then red tiles

New player or fun play….Most tiles are resource rich

Challenging play….1 good double, rest are random strength

Expert play….1 average double, rest are low resource

New player mix allows enough resources so if a new player;s fleet is wiped out, the new player can still easily recover.

Expert play makes each move very important because it is not easy to recover from a fleet getting wiped out.

 We stick to the system from the rulebook, but we place systems face down (except red systems). Resource distribution is more uneven, but there are a lot of surprises that provide an interesting development, like a wormhole next to a home system or a premium system smack in the middle of two empires.

We also do the standard setup from the book. The 'balanced' maps aren't as much fun IMO as they rob the game of taking advantage of tactical differences in the map.

If you're asking about strategies when placing the random stack of tiles that you get, that's a much more interesting subject.