[Jtownsend]

I was going by Zareth's comment - but perhaps he didn't know I meant a medium tech game and was just thinking it was an outlandish early tech to strive for. Basically, I was just struck by the importance of training, and didn't realize both ship and fleet training counted seperately and stacked. Thinking they were redundant, I figured it would be much better to research fleet training and create "cadre" fleets which I'd then send to the front - not a bad idea, but apparently only half of what training constitutes.

I'm still not sure about how to spend the 100k research. Granted, a single huge tech gets itself out of the way in a hurry, but really, the same techs need resarching whichever order I do them in, and it would seem that the most urgent priorities are really things like getting minelayers out ASAP unless I plan to gank a neighbor with an energy pulse weapon without having other foundation technologies. And then, the first levels of that weapon aren't too decisive, right? So maybe something dull like Frigates - Armour - Mines - Shields - something or other? I get the 100k spent whatever I do, and it doesn't really give me an advantage vis a vis the other 8 guys with the same 100k to spend.