[MaxWilson]

Actually, now that I think of it, that reminds me of Master of Orion 2: Battle at Antares. In a way, a starting province with no exits is an ideal defensive position. C'tis can do decent research off of its starting death income and using sacred shamans; I suppose you *could* play the game out from your unassailable home base until you had Astral Travel researched, and then start dropping Gateways everywhere. In the short-term you could be dropping occasional Calls of the Wild ("Antarans attack!") or Arouse Hungers, just to pick up some cash before the provinces get retaken. A very strange but possibly fun way to play, if you have the patience--and a fast enough computer that you don't mind processing 80 turns of doing nothing before you get Astral Travel. (Buy one shaman, hit "Next turn.")

-Max