Ha ha Dein posting on a FFA that he didn't win.

I killed Deinfreind's last unit, and that triggeredgame end. everyone else resigned or lagged too far behind so they were considered out.

Just like in your game, I don't play 1v1 in FFA. I dislike being out of control, and as soon as you focus all your resources on playing a 1v1 you're no longer in control of the big picture. Somebody else could be taking the entire map.

Besides that, it also doesn't work diplomatically for me. If I would beat people in a 1v1 inside this FFA, it would reinforce everyone's opinion of me as the guy who's going to win the game. I'd also have a bigger territory with additional borders opening additional attack surface. All this, while not actually having any economy due to a lack of energy.

The only case where this does work, is when there are no other capable enough players to take you down afterwards. This can also happen when you're surrounded by newbies who involuntarily protect you from attack by being a buffer zone. This is how you won on Dworld and it unfortunately happens fairly frequently due to the high skill disparity in most FFAs.

So while you can take your chances on playing big and dueling everyone who gets in your way, this is not the way I like to play FFA. It causes your success to depend mostly on your starting position and neighbours. I find it much more satisfying to win without getting CA nor Purple Heart.