I'm glad you had fun! I did, as well.
I didn't realize what a threat you were, I mean I knew you were powerful, but the extent of your power I really had no idea. I probably should have attacked you straight away after we finished Ulm. It's just, I couldn't have defeated you completely (I had no underwater capability), so I decided to save you for last.
I never got the research for artifacts.. I had other research priorities.
About the victory conditions -- I didn't refuse to change them. I thought it was a good idea, actually. It's just it was impossible to change at that point. As soon as someone conquered the necessary # of provinces, the game would have ended. And, it really wouldn't have made a difference anyway.
I thought that I could win quickly by just conquering the world and never even going into the sea. There were 120 provinces, 20 sea provinces, and only 80 were needed for the win. My plan was to force you to react to me being about to win, let you take the first strike, see what you had going on, then push you back into the sea with overwhelming force.
That plan didn't go so well, obviously.
I thought I was far in the lead in this game, I just greatly underestimated your strength.
I knew you were building tartarians, but I could have handled those. I didn't anticipate you hoarding death gems for all those globals.. Utterdark really screwed me. And I didn't anticipate the teleporting starspawn -- well, I mean I know you mentioned that you were going to do that. But I thought the 15 PD or so that I had would handle them. I didn't anticipate all that equipment you forged for them!
That's what really blew my mind.. everyone one of those guys was equipped out to the teeth. Your conservative playstyle led me to believe that you were weaker than you actually were. If I had all the gems that you apparently did, I would have... you know... done what I did in this game. Expand and destroy as much as possible!! Bwhahaha!!!
But definitely in no-graph games, I can see the reasoning behind holding yourself back. Certainly worked out well here. I think if we had graphs on, this game would have been very different. Who knows what would have happened..