You can take the desert province, just use the show_cursorstat cheat to find the coordinates next to the city *which is in the very bottom left* then use the move_character cheat to get an army down there. Don't bother trying to walk there, you can't get to the city it's impossible and even if you could, it takes like 80 turns. I did it once in .8 as Carthage, but getting it to work was such a pain in the ass, plus the province is a hole, so I haven't again.

And jesus d'Arthez that blitz would put the germans to shame.