Luck/Misfortune Nerf.

[alexti]

Micah said:
Given that scenario I have to question either the quality of your opponents or the quality of the respective nations...I don't care how good you are, no one should be able to take 2 opponents on at once after cripplingly bad events, especially with a self-inflicted poor strategy.

I think you're making wrong conclusions. Opponents were pretty good. My strategy was quite decent too. It was simply wrong - I expected to encounter uber-bless, but neither of my opponents didn't play it, so I ended up with relatively useless pretender and bunch of spells researched that weren't useful in particular situation. Another important point is that opposition doesn't generally consider destroying you as their own purpose. They have to be concerned with other nations getting stronger. Skirmishes in the early game is one thing, but a major war is a risky undertaking: if you can't win in fast, you're likely to end up in a poor position very soon. So as long as you're able to inflict (or at least convince them that you can inflict) serious damage on the opponents they will typically be satisfied by minor successes. After all they're following their grand plan and it's unlikely that they've built their strategy around you (their neighbour) having unlucky start.