[Septimius Severus]

While diplomacy may have factored into ACGHHS ultimate win (as I noted) there was not much choice really, particularly for either the Blessed Ones or the Mysterios. The Deva's had Niefel, Hinnom, and a veteran captain and experienced and talented team members. No fault of the Deva's of course regarding the nations they got or chose, this occurred because other teams failed to rank Hinnom higher for whatever reasons. Diplomacy can be an equalizer (in this case giving the underdogs more leverage) or an unbalancer depending upon who you ask and the situation.

As Chris says, the odds had been calculated before hand so we all knew going in. Nation selection of course will be a non-issue in game 2 as teams are pre-made and Ashdod will be either relegated to AI or left out entirely (looks like it will be the later, as Caelum is a better fit for the AI theme). The same may likely hold true for LA R'lyeh and/or LA Ermor I suspect in game 3.

The experience level gap played a large role as well in my opinion, ACGHHS and the Deva's having the most experienced captains and the Blessed's having three noobs, as well as a few roster changes. This was largely due to the inability to find an experienced captain for the Blesseds and/or other players. I attempted to address it as best I could by giving both the Mysterios and Blesseds veteran advisors.

Hopefully we will be able to get more balanced experience levels among teams next game, recruiting captains and advisors first and letting them do most of their own recruiting may also help to ensure harmony within a team. Thus the need to ally will be reduced and will also be reduced by the introduction of VPs which generally discourages broad or long term alliances.