In lieu of an AAR I'm going to whine and say that once again this game was won due to luck and good diplomacy not brilliant playing. I had such a great starting position I managed to fence of 27 provinces by turn 12, even conceding one to Sauromatia in order to keep up good relations. I managed to keep a NAP with both my neighbors Lanka and Sauro until I reached a critical research point. I then dissolved my NAP with Sauro about the same time he started a war with his neighbor Bogarus. After enveloping both of them in a fairly painless war the game seemed over to me. Interestingly enough I did no research in Blood except for the last couple of turns when most others schools were complete. Melqarts have a +3 blood sacrifice boost which was their alternate duty when not kicking butt. Anyway, although I love Sharivar (and this time it loved me
) I thing the moral of my story is that playing on balanced maps with fixed starts is more than a good idea.