The other thing that struck me was their lack of espionage experience. They were warned once or twice (by CD I think), and tried to get a spy in every city, but what was needed was the espionage rate being cranked up. When we infiltrated, they assumed we had just landed a GS - not that we'd actually had him in country for years. Actually being able to crank the rate up is of course linked to the commerce/production balance which, as has already been mentioned, was dubious.

One other thing from the early years - their first Japanese war did not seem to go well. They lost an awful lot of Immortals - I thought they were supposed to be good units. They whole thing stalled. I don't think the war was prosecuted particularly well, but then I haven't studied all the screenshots or any saves. Then the Vikings and Japanese declared war and Alpha sat and watched. Probably a mistake; possibly a huge one. With the right timing Alpha could have taken all of Japan. They were even invited to take part by Ragnar! With those Japanese coastal cities and their resources at their disposal, Omegan domination of the seas would have been far,far harder to achieve.

Finally - use of GP's. Mongoose practically choked on his false teeth at one point I noticed, much to my amusement.

Luckily they scre**d up.