[Loser]

That's about how it happened.

I made the Mad Five Base Budget Busting Colonization Push at the beginning of the game and paid for it. I didn't find _any_ breathable mineral worlds within four systems of my homeworld and foolishly did not consider the More Smaller Mineral Colonies possibility to get me by.

Instead, a couple of years in, I started breaking down the Research Centers on the homeworld to make room for more Mineral Miners. I didn't have any research colonies at that point so research actually came to a halt. That's not a Success Strategy, I am thinking.

In the more minor battles earlier in the game, Alneyan's Fighterless Light Carriers trounced every one of my ships they safely made it to, only defeated, really, by Planet Sector Mines.

He beat me, but I can't help thinking he could have beaten me worse if he'd included some Fighters.