This can't be right

[Norfleet]

Originally posted by Abydos:
There was no battle for my Dominion and it was heavily fortified.

That doesn't matter: Dominion is seperate from military strength: You can have the strongest military in the game, and still lose if your dominion score falls to 0. Dominion is represented in the map by the white candles. How many white candles did you see? If you saw only very small white candles prior to your sudden and unexpected defeat, you lost because you got dominion-killed.

You have to keep at least one white candle somewhere. If you have no candles anywhere, GAME OVER.

Build lots of temples, and have your priests preach until you see large, fat, white candles.