Here's an incomplete thought that I wanted to get to the community to see if it has any merit.

What if Magic trumps Warfare, Warfare trumps Civilization, and Civilization trumps Magic?

This is all presumptive on the point that there will be 3 equally viable and balanced ways to win:

Civilization (alliance) victory, typified by having enough influence to have everyone else rally to your banner without having to essentially buy a military victory by stealing other people's combat units.  In this case, you wish to always operate without war being delcared anywhere.  Under those conditions, you get 100% more diplomacy points, movement anywhere is unrestricted, and gold generation is increased by trade.  You want gold mines and influence sites.  The win here is to just be nice to everyone, have everyone be nice to everyone, and you come out on top.  Hoever, this is a world ravaged by magic previously, and so the people (rightly so) distrust magic and all who practice it.  If magic is growing again in the world, Civilization players want to squash it out, and so, through their actions, can essentially reduce the output of mana for every node and increase the spell casting cost for all players in the game.  Of course, if war is declared against you, all of the civilization perks go away, and some penalties accrue instead.  Civilization trumps magic, and is trumped by warfare.

A Warfare (conquest) victory, typified by building a bunch of high end units and going out and stomping on opponents.  This player wants to have a constant state of warfare existing, and gains power for his units which are built during a time of open hostilitiies.  "Fight early, fight often" is your motto.  You want iron mines, forests, and materials nodes.  While warfare is declared, your production is increased, your units are tougher, and them sissy civlization players are going to pay, pay, pay.  Of course, all this mayhem you're seeking out awakes the spirit of the Titans, who begin to pump power into magic, with intent to punish those who would disturb their slumber.  Any spell cast against your combat units, in overland or in tactical, becomes twice as effective (slow, DD, AOE, all of it).   Your ability to harvest nodes withers and dies as your iron mines grow without bound, and even as the nodes grow stronger. Warfare trumps civilization, and is trumped by magic. 

A Magical (spell of mastery/quest of mastery) victory, typified by acquiring and retaining nodes, and as many of them as you can.  As this player progresses, nodes become more powerful, spells become more powerful, and the ability to summon creatures or put fantastic power into your champions becomes yours; you're effectively recreating your own little band of titans, armed with the weapons and armor of the titans, that can go around and change the very fabric of the land to your will.  Spells become cheaper in mana, and so you should be slinging it around like the aroused Lord of Titans that you are.  You values nodes and crystal to support your arcane researches.  Of course, every city, and every citizen that you gain, every building that you build (but NOT every outpost you place) civilizes things a bit, and as your population grows, their mistrust of the magic that brought the world low once before grows; your power wanes as your civilization grows.  You'd almost prefer to have just you in your tower, a few trusted minions, and your band of heroes do to your bidding.  To you (and you alone) comes the secret of teleportation for your band of heroes.  They can crush any army beneath their feet, and can move quickly enough to stop an almost infinite horde of incoming armies.  If only your population would just STOP REPRODUCING, and give you some time to think.  Who can discover the secrets of the universe with all those titan-damned BABIES crying just outside your tower?!  Magic trumps warfare, and is trumped by civilization.

Winni