Update: Turning off all particle effects and setting the AI to normal (I was using the lowest setting, just to race through the tech tree unhindered to see what's what) made it possible to finish a game, 299 turns.
Holy cow, Ceresa is a pain in the glutes. She had to have about 20 cities to my 4 starting cities. All of them small, poorly protected, and underdeveloped. When I started steamrolling, she sent armies after my (undefended) resource nodes, but not at my (weakly defended) captured cities. Not a particularly effective strategy, since I don't have to move units to rebuild resources, but she does have to build and move units to retake cities. The AI might do better to have a priorities checklist: Can I take a big city? A small city? No, then can I take nodes? Then can I take resources of interest to my opponent based on what I've seen fielded (iron, crystal, or diplomatic)? Then any other targets?
The game was won at turn 80, and I spent 200 odd turns mopping up, a Ceresa continued to build and refield her increasingly defective heroes against me. She should have given up around turn 100, when I was way out in front. She actually gave up when it was 290 power to 30, and I was marching on her last city.
She was an annoying b*tch. Fun game during the initial part, though!
