So Much to do, it makes my brain Hurt

[raynor]

One way to get to the top is to gain more planets than the top player. Do this either by colonizing empty planets or taking away someone elses. Another option is to trade for or research the other colonization techs so that you colonize all three types of world: rock, ice and gas colony.

Next, you need to fully utilize the planets you have already colonized. Have you noticed that a huge world that is domed only gives you 1/5th the number of facilities? This is because your population doesn't breathe that atmosphere type. You can dramatically increase your resource production and population if you get rid of those domes. There are a couple of ways to do it.

First, you can conquer a race that breathes that atmosphere. Then, you can ship hydrogen breathers to your hydrogen worlds and CO2 breathers to your Carbon Dioxide worlds, and Methane breathers to your Methane worlds. Put those guys down and bring your Oxygen breather to the transport. Voila! The dome is gone and you get the full production capacity of the world. This is very good when you go from 5 to 25 facilities on a huge world.

Conquering a race that breathes an alternate atmosphere is the fastest way but you can also take the research route. Research Planet utilization to get climate improvement plants, value improvement plants and finally atmosphere modification plants. The latter allow you to change the atmosphere to your default atmosphere--typically oxygen. But even the Atmostphere Mod Plant III still takes 2.0 years (20 turns!) so you have a while to wait. You can see why conquering a race is much, much faster!

Also, you can research the mineral manager, organic manager, refining manager, research facility II and III. This will also increase your production and move you up a spot or two.

Good luck!