What size galaxy do you start on?

Medium is good sometimes, but it is very hit or miss. Sometimes you can grab 8-10 planet right away and sometimes you get cornered and are stuck with 3! Large just takes too long. Usually I have to just keep restarting until I get something that looks fair but won't give me too much of an advantage. THis problem existed i the original game, too. What do you guys think? On Medium do you notice that your starting point can range from ridulously good to horribly bad? Do you ever try to play through one of those three planet starts on Medium map?