[AdmiralZhao]

As the neighbor of both Ermor and Marignon, I would have to say that this game is hardly a representative case. For one, Marignon has been bottled up on an island since about turn 10, and only had about 12 provinces in total. Also, I think Marignon is a bit new to MP, since as far as I can tell he never built PD. Not to downplay BigAndScary's victory, but this is really more of a case of a big power crushing a small power, rather than Ermor being unbeatable.

To derail a bit: in my test games with Ermor, it has always seemed like they have a real difficulty keeping up in research. Their national mages all require death gems, which are already in huge demand. And even after the mages are created, there is still a lot of competition for their time, as the mages are also needed for site searching, leading armies, summoning more mages, and casting battle field enchantments. How do you manage to stay competitive in research?