How DA game scores are calculated is a mystery to me. I just tried an experiment with a throwaway game that I had started with a hopelessly bad home planet and colony situation. DA, tech trading allowed, no super abilities. Occasional planets on a large map, so that each civ limited to two or three colonies. I turned the slider to total research and built almost nothing but research builds on my two colonies...raising my research units total way out of proportion...so that I soon began racing through the tech tree with even advanced techs like Research Academies and Shock Troops only taking around 9 turns and many key techs only 5 turns or less. Before I decided to switch to production of warships using all the advanced military techs I had, an AI invaded and captured my home planet. I was surprised to find that the game summary showed me with the lowest tech score on the board! I would appreciate having your comments.