Until you entered the game, I never had much lands or any gold and therefore only a little army. The upkeep for R'lyeh is quite stiff. My scales didn't help there much
That changed when I attacked Marignon (there you took over from Horst). My cheap masterenslavetactic worked pretty good against him. I was still busy defeating, building temples and regular armies, when you attacked Tien Chi. Those 10-15 turns I was never able to compensate. And I have not much experience with and against SC. That was obvious I think.
At least the master theft of the Chalice in combination with the astral corruption caused some trouble for you. Alas your higher gem income allowed you to always steal him back and hitting me more than you.