Thanks for the reply:
1) Re: colonization - can I even do this when the planet to be colonized is in another system? Will the command take as I click to get to the other system and click on a planet there? And with regards to the "c" key, I've always been a mouser - never cared to memorize key shortcuts - though in this case I'll make an exception
2) I was just using that as an example. You could just as well use total attack factors on some scale. But the commonsense presumption is that no one, even a dumb AI has DNs with one mesonbLaster and a cruiser with 10. Sorry, but examples at the extremes don't invalidate the suggestion if they are unlikely to happen
Grifman