I won my first DA game (tough) on a small map with no tech trading, abundant planets, common stars, tight clusters, abundant anomalies, very slow tech rate. All AI's were set on max cpu, 10% bonus economy, with racial abilities maxed out from greates to least until their points ran out. I had 8 AI plus myself so everybody started with a sector. I call it a death match, since there is no colony rush. I had super abilities and mega events turned on. The DA startegy guide Frogboy put out said it should have been a long game. It lasted 1 game year and 5 months and only myself, the Terrans and the Krynn survived. The Terrans were culurally dominating the Krynn so they allowed me to become allies. I was already allied with the Terrans and so scored a diplomatic victory. My total score was just above 1800 and I was surprised to see the Yor who I wiped 5 months into the game, get the highest tech score with only 6 techs research and 7 stolen. I had 112 researched, 12 stolen, and still only showed 1% of a tech victory done. It was truly different from any game I ever played in DL. The Dread Lords even showed up as a mega event and were wiped by the Arceans first turn. My civ was a custom. I had 4 tech capitals, 3 manufacturing capitals, and I still couldn't beat the Yor's score??? There wasn't enough planets to specialize. It was a short intense play though. Very enjoyable.