This is a pretty nasty racial combo...

[Baron Munchausen]

Will, isn't that pretty much true of any game against the AI? All you have to do is 'barricade' yourself into a few systems and research? Even with a bonus the AI is awful at research. It follows a pre-planned script and cannot deviate from it to react to actual need except for one or two things like mine sweepers. If you were playing against at least one human opponent I think your game would have turnd out very differently.