Guy,s chill out. for real, lets not get wrapped up in hundred of tinmy messages, it will take forever for Iituem to find out whats going on.
And Sheb, losing in turn 1 is hardly ever fun for anyone., take that into account.
What he said. Reading through this all now. That said the game is very cut-throat and I want it that way, just try not to get into OOC angers about it; you win some, you lose some. The betrayal trick with the first set of mercenaries worked quite well. Now the other side of players are trying to pull the same. We'll see how well that works for them.
To add to this, yes, the only way to lose on turn 1 is to either slash/burn everything (I'm not sure if I'd allow that since a conflict is underway) or for your enemy to park 6+ Might in your theatre after victory is achieved. Technically you could get reduced to 1 Social Infrastructure and still survive this game*.
*Declare despotism (instant, since you only have 1 Infr), raze your Social Infr and immediately build a Wealth Infr. Put yourself in an immediate defensive alliance with a more powerful player and offer them 0.5-1 Wealth/turn for protection, then try and claw your way back through more subtle means - if you had the patience you could manage it with 1 Social and 1 Economic under those rules. Pay tribute to the greater ally, then schmooze your relations to Fanatic with an AI nation and annexe them. You're safely back to 6 Infr at that point and you're back in the game.
Edit: I'll give you a free tip, guys. No AI nation has more than 3 Clout (50% of their Infrastructure) at this stage of the game. Plan accordingly.