Quote Originally Posted by Ramses II CP
Well, I've never had this happen, but the victory screen isn't all that impressive anyway. Don't you get an option to continue playing and ignore the victory conditions?
You do get the opportunity to continue playing but the chance to 'win' has gone. Debatable whether this makes a difference but I'd rather achieve the victory conditions than not.

Quote Originally Posted by vallu751
I for one am happy that the AI is capable of winning.

You got a message that the AI was close to winning, you chose to ignore it and then the AI won. Isn't that how the game is supposed to go?
I too am happy that the AI is capable of winning. I don't accept that I simply ignored the message that the AI was close to winning; as I wrote in my original post: "Realistically, there's no way I could have prevented them winning in the time between notification of their imminent victory and its achievement."

That's the point: between being told that a distant faction is close to winning and their ultimate victory, you tend to only have a few turns. If they'd be a close neighbour or I'd had a navy and been able to reduce the travel time by sea, I might have been able to intervene. As Apache against one of the southern factions, that's not the case: by the time I knew anything about it, it was too late. Is that how the game is supposed to go?

Quote Originally Posted by vallu751
Finding a way to stop another faction from winning while they are situated very far from your own empire is a good challenge. Just doing your own thing every game, regardless of what the others are up to, is not.
It is only a good challenge if it's an achievable challenge. I didn't do my own thing "regardless of what others are up to" - I realised that there was no practicable way I could intervene successfully. I didn't intervene earlier because I had no idea they were doing so well.

I'm not saying it's a bad thing for situations like this to occur but I think you're missing the point if you believe I could have responded to this "challenge" in the time available.

The only way I could have prevented the Txallacan victory would have been to intervene far, far earlier - but then it could have been the Aztecs, the Mayans, the Spanish or any other faction who expanded. Can anyone seriously intervene to prevent expansion by all other factions, whilst building their own economy and expanding into their 'natural' territories?

It makes the game far more interesting but doesn't it also make it a lottery?