[thejeff]

An interesting possibility that might implement the "flexible teams" idea and the pantheon idea would be to specify that a team could fill the victory conditions and win, but not specify the teams up front.

Now, most regular games end by consensus and may acknowledge an alliance victory, but if the rules said that a team with a certain number of provinces or victory points would be declared winner, there would be a formal mechanism. You'd be able to wheel and deal, make and break alliances all you want, but the victory conditions for the game would actually respect the alliances.