Same as Primitive here, I would merely like to know if the Talisman is welcomed here or not. I gather that if is it on, both teams will go for it, and as quickly as possible. (I haven't made any calculation about how many turns you need, but my wild guess would be somewhere between turn 30 and turn 40)
As for openers, I do believe you could have three such ships running as early as turn 30. (And possibly before) You merely need 350,000 research points to have SM II, and then you have about 10 turns to get SM III for 450,000 research points (not much with three homeworlds). The main problem will obviously be to get the resources needed for the retrofitting part, so you might need one or two more turns. If you are really doing well, it might even be possible to reach SM IV in time (for an additional 800,000 research points), but don't quote me on that.
So I would be strongly against Warp Openers (and Warp Closers, as closing all wormholes would be quite a problem), but I don't have a strong opinion on the Talisman as long as both teams agree either to take it or to forget it. It wouldn't do if only one team had this device for example, while the other decided to invest in Organics Extraction.
Why Slynky, I need to get even for this certain KOTH game, but in the light of our recent games, I will be benevolent towards your people. Well, I will not put them in the same kind of thrall as Parabolize's subjects, if you get my meaning.

(Am I too confident? It could be the aforementioned propaganda that is showing up)