To ensure life didn't seem like a fairy tale, the roads were very difficult, and there were few cons/uls and slag Dragon Utopia for me. Because of this, the opp was ahead in army and stats throughout the game. But more importantly, the opp overall did a better job of organizing their game - in the late game he essentially had three active heroes with full control, while I only had two - which gave him the edge over time.
Around the same time we finished rebuilding our control, and for a couple of weeks Dess and company (Pyre and Labetka) practiced taking my cities back. I think another three weeks of "most interesting" gameplay awaited us if I hadn't found new rakes in the super-late game that I'd never seen before, and stepped on them. But I found them and I stepped on them. :D