Military win as Divine Ascension on Small Pangaea with High Alien Aggression. I got a Devourer & a Galeth, cleared some hives (lost the Galeth), then rushed TS's ATVs with Avenger Tanks. A few more tanks took down Noxium (using Devourer as first attacker to take out his strongest tank). At this point I had a 5-star economy, had caught up in tech, massive territory, so could've probably won any way I wanted. James had a slightly bigger army but stayed friendly. Togra were the last to go, my gatling-gun aircraft vs his 30 colonial troopers. Artillery & bombardments would've made my job really easy but the planes were enough. The AI made some strange decisions, sending his best tanks out of his cities to take out my units and leaving them vulnerable to counterattack. And building massive stacks of missile troopers when my army was mainly gatling-planes and gatling-tanks, almost like he wanted them to die
In another game as SD I've held off a big Ascension attack (by retreating to defend my cities) and am ready to either counterattack or sue for peace and go for economic win - I'm ahead on everything else and now even on military.
Early rushes are very powerful, even for the AI, the only times I've lost have been against Ascension or Imperium after they conquered about half the map and their economy was unstoppable. Conquered cities could maybe use longer morale penalties (even permanent penalties relative to the size of the city when conquered?)
I think with the way diplomacy works once you get into a position of strength it's easy to maintain it as no-one will challenge you. But if you fall behind, someone will try to take advantage. If you get a good start Very Hard isn't very hard.
Also sure that bigger maps are probably harder than Small, I prefer quick games so that's what I usually play. Might try a Standard map next though.