[Edi]

Between the two of you, it is not yet a decided game by any means. Depends on what each of you does with it. I've talked to both of you by PM and at this point I have no secrets left as such.

The place where the game went south for me was when Sniffleheim simply abandoned the game without even bothering to go AI or informing anyone so we could have gotten a sub. I had a NAP with him and didn't check the staling data, which Carkaton, my ally of the time did, thus getting all of Niefelheim's territory.

I should have attacked him at that point without warning, as it was essentially a betrayal of our alliance not to share the information. I'm not bitter about that, but this game would look decidedly different at this point if I had not made the mistakes I did. So I got boxed in, fell behind in research and by the time I got my stuff together, it was too late, C'tis had too much of a lead. A stupid strategic error on my part resulted in the complete annihilation of my main army when he took the province behind me and all of my combat mages died in retreat. Lost well over a dozen of them that way, all with equipment.

The province with the trolls helped me in the early game and has staved off my defeat by a turn or two. Losing my pretender earlier was not a big deal, since he was already mute and feebleminded by that time and recalling him got rid of those two afflictions, which was lucky on my part. Another thing that helped me was having Mother Oak up as long as I did, which allowed enough gems to arrange for the Gift of Health, which turned out to be a stroke of genius and really put a crimp in C'tis's plans when he had to spend a significant portion of one army just to take down my trolls.

The reason I am so friendly with Kailasa is that we have no common border and no hostilities and we've done each other some favors trading items and gems earlier, sharing intel and other small things like that. Aside from some common moves against Vanheim in the early game, I've had little or nothing to do with him despite us being nominal allies.

Another thing that might have turned the tide on a lot of things is if I'd had access to a single astral mage earlier, because it turned out that some of my provinces (one in particular) were crawling with useful astral sites. Finding the Library of Time 20 turns earlier would have made for a VERY different strategy on my part.

Right now I have disproportionate influence on future events due to all the goodies I've got around and the gem stash I'm sitting on because I have no useful way or even capability of spending it that makes any difference to my ultimate fate. So I can give an advantage to someone, but it does not mean the game is decided. Both C'tis and Kailasa have ways of fighting that will make life very, very difficult for each other. Abysia's disposition is really what will decide this, since he has more useful tools to fight a death nation than an astral one.

For C'tis and Abysia the best course is to crush me as quickly and thoroughly as possible while simultaneously attacking Kailasa and trying to get the Nexus down quickly. For Kailasa, well, I do not have a realistic assessment of his capabilities except for the pretender, no idea what mages and other things. My grasp of the monkey nations in general except for Lanka is rather weak.

So, let's see for a while yet. If Abysia looks like he's not coming back, I'll postpone the hosting so we can see if anybody wants to sub him.