You have the power to continue

(From the official description at Cosmic Encounter Online) - Your [offensive] turn is not limited to two encounters. As long as you have encounter pods, you may continue as offensive alien, even if you lost the previous encounter. As you continue, if you win on any 'first encounter' you will automatically have a second encounter. If you lose or fail to make a successful deal you will still be able to continue if you wish. Thus, at the end of each unsuccessful encounter, and each successful second encounter, you will have the choice to continue your turn.

What does this mean?  It means the other players will despise you.  It means getting plagued and zapped and ignored like there's no tomorrow.  Why?  Why do that hate you so?  Well, that hate you because your turn can take up THE WHOLE GAME if you get lucky and play well.  All offensive players aside from you get a maximum of 2 encounters on each turn.  You can have an infinite number of turns depending on what happens.  Your offensive turn is over only under one of the following circumstances:  (1)  You win the game.  (2)  You use your power to continue and you get zapped.  (3) You run out of encounter pods.  (4) You lose an encounter and choose to stop

Example:  You are offensive player in an encounter.  You lose the encounter to the defensive player.  Rather than having your turn end, you use your power to continue and start another encounter as the offensive player.

After Machine has made the decision to continue (and the Machine animation begins), Machine can be zapped.  In such a case, Machine's offensive turn ends and the player to the Machine's left becomes the offensive player.

Lots of players (including the author of this write-up, billytheo) despise Machine.  Some of us despise being Machine almost as much as we despise playing against Machine.  Machine's ability to continue its turn tends to bring down the wrath of other players.  Thus, it is useful to plan how you can win as quickly as possible, and to do what you can to placate other players in the meantime.

Accept offers to act as a defensive ally as often as possible.  Collect as many encounter pods as possible before your offensive turn arrives.  Be somewhat cautious, however: defensive players may try to lure you in as an ally in order to send your ships to the warp.

As a defensive player, consider using a negotiate pod if you are likely to acquire multiple encounter pods and if the offensive player will not be able to get more than 3 bases on his or her turn.

As an offensive player, use your negotiate ("N") pods early.  Gather as many pods as possible from other players, even if it means sacrificing ships.  Be willing to lose up to 8 ships if you can get 8 pods.

After acquiring pods through the use of your "N" pods, consider using only one ship per encounter.  This saves ships for later encounters if you lose.

Strategically, Machine often benefits from using smaller encounter pods early, and saving larger encounter pods for later.  As your offensive turn continues, defensive players will have less encounter pods to choose from, and thus a 10 or 12 saved for a later encounter may be an easy winner.

Consider inviting allies on a regular basis.  Allies will help you win early encounters and may prevent zaps and other plays where you would otherwise lose.

Keep track of both zaps and "N"s played.  Other players have strong incentive to save their zaps for you.  Defensive players may well play "N" against you in order to deprive you of pods.  Knowing how many of each has been played gives you a distinct advantage.  (Note:  there are 11 total "N" pods in the deck.)

Be aware that there are times Machine SHOULD stop.  If there is no chance of winning the game and you are running short of ships, you may want to stop even if you could continue.

Strategically, there are times when Machine should keep going even if there will be multiple loses.  Machine may want to continue in order to wipe out all encounter pods in a bad hand or deprive other players of encounter pods.

WHEN PLAYING AGAINST A BOT:  be aware that the bots are programmed to play an "N" against Machine whenever possible.  While this may result in an easy victory for you on any single encounter, you may also lose enough pods to have the result be a pyrrhic victory (i.e. a victory that ultimately is more like a defeat).  Consider ways in which you can use the bot's "N" to your advantage. 

I would like to suggest that when playing Machine it might be a good idea to stop your first turn early- particularly if you are the first or second player to go. At that time your opponents have a lot of pods (i.e. it is harder to wear them down) and it is unlikely that you won't get a second turn. By that time you can have a lot more pods and your opponents will likely have used some of their better ones. --- Tmonk
 

Work with the other two players in the game to deprive Machine of pods.  Machine can only continue its offensive turn as long as it has pods.  When it runs out of pods, its turn is over.

Consider holding your zaps for Machine.  (Unless you like the boredom of sitting around and watching someone play.)

Use plague on Machine whenever possible.

Avoid inviting Machine as an offensive or defensive ally.

As the defensive player, consider using a negotiate ("N") pod to deprive Machine of pods.

Be wary of allying with Machine.  Send only one ship if you choose to ally with Machine as an offensive ally.

WHEN PLAYING IN GAMES THAT INCLUDE BOTS:  let the bots do the heavy lifting.  The bots will frequently damage themselves in order to harm Machine.

Play in a room where there is a television or a stereo for you to use when the intense boredom of playing against Machine gets to be too much.