[Xietor]

The game does require diplomacy. In the last Big Game diplomacy failed, and the 2 super races gobbled up great chunks of the map until they were near unstoppable(la Ryleh and LA Ermor). Having these races in the game REQUIRES diplomacy for the lesser races to have a chance to win.

If you are playing in a Big Game and you draw a race like MA Man for instance, and your neighbor is EA Lanka and he attacks you, well the best part of MA Man's game is the early game.

That said, MA Man, all other things being equal, has no shot of beating off Lanka. Lighting only gets you so far.
And longbows just make the lanka sacreds mad.

So really, diplomacy is your best option in that situation.
Find another of lanka's neighbors and say, "When I am gone, which will not be too far into the future if i do not get help, who do you think will be next on the menu?"

But peace is boring.