[Micah]

I felt I was as solidly in control of RAND 1 as was possible given the wrapped map and the volume and quality of other players. My hold on things was certainly getting kind of tenuous at the end (especially since I'd staked my chances at that point on a cap-grab), but up until then I'd gotten some huge lucky breaks (shadow seers!) as well as playing a nearly mistake-free game...If I'd not managed to win I think the game would have probably dragged on until near the end of time, since no one else was in anywhere near as strong a position, and once the research was all done it becomes quite easy to gang people from across the entire map.

I also would have had a really bad time of things if any of the caps I'd attacked had been domed...Plus I got most of my VPs the old-fashioned way, killing Mictlan, Tir, Marverni and Ulm myself and winning Pangaea when I beat Ulm, so I only teleported onto 2 caps, total. (well, 3, but shark attack is retarded...) I earned the other 7 capitals, and once I'd gotten that big it was pretty near impossible to hold onto all my provs, there are simply too many borders to defend at that point, and with 15+ nations it's pretty hard to get strong enough to take on the whole world at once.