[Edi]

Luck and starting position play a huge part. So does the disposition of your first neighbors and where you manage to take things.

As far as this game goes, not to put too fine a point on it but you got caught between a rock and a hard place. No idea about Lanka, but your other neighbor's graphs say it all...

With regard to expansion, I must say that my own initial expansion was slower than I had hoped. It's picked up some at Vanheim's expense now, but we'll see how it goes...