Perhaps that's true, but it doesn't explain their total failure to grab at least 50% of the early Wonders. What the heck was going on?

OK, so they got in Pricep: Chitchin Itza, Swedagon Paya, Apostolic Palace and the Pyramids;

in Bismarkia: the temple of Solomon and the Sistine Chapel;

in Cowtown: the Mausoleum (captured, not built)

Omega got every single other Wonder as far as I recall, (or captured it) and even the Sistine chapel was a close-run thing. That should not happen, and even the AI usually does better than that (because of the inbuilt bias at higher levels no doubt)

I can't believe running Representation early was the cause. Surely we have all built the Pyramids in a single game and done that ourselves and survived?

Also, they are not daft. With players like NC on their team, they must have known how to make the best of their situation - and I am convinced Mongoose made the whole thing a level playing-field from the start.

So I am at a loss. I fully expected THEM to investigate us first with caravels. I expected a real race to circumnavigation when we discovered we were on opposing continents. I fully expected them to be ahead in tech, and that we would have to fight and steal to catch up.

As it turned out, it was all so much easier than anticipated.

I will be very interested to find out, when this is all over, if there was a single factor or defining moment that marked the beginning of the end for Alpha (if only so that we can all avoid it in the future!)

Or maybe it was simply a matter of the system of government?