Well that's a lot of "ifs" and I'm afraid that I'm not so confident. When you realize that your (so close) dominion survives even now as I'm doing my best, you know that this particular strategy won't get me anywhere against the others.
At the same time, I believe that TC at least doesn't feel like he's a challenger. Everything indicates he's the leader and will give us a wide berch in the next turns.
I must confess I never really felt that threatened by Rlyeh or Ermor though
