I'm glad with the group's focus on getting ahold of doc: flex ASAP - it was a high research priority even before the current political crisis. Given that he is on another continent, our production of foil probes and transport-hunters will allow us to concentrate on other production at home. It won't matter what our base garrisons look like if their transports are sunk en route.
I agree with several posters recommending we risk skipping synthmetal and impact units if we can reach plasma and missile (and prototype them) before he shows up. At any rate, a good patrol of the seas will give us some warning, and might find us new allies
or locate his bases.
Even if he slips past our defenses, his poor probe rating will make his units easy picking for mind-control (then we don't have to prototype)!
