I think the game needs more endgame stuff. It feels like there's supposed to be one more level above dreadnoughts, or at least some alternative strategies besides adjusting the stream of armies. At the moment a bombing run is about the only card people can play.

This is a great suggestion. The core gameplay needs something compelling to keep the endings exciting. It becomes a 'chore' to clean up.

Yep, VR & northbridge need cooling on many X58s. I'm running an i7-920 at 3.6Ghz with a monolithically huge air cooler, a 20mm top-vent case fan, a 40mm fan on the northbridge and a slot-mounted case fan (used an old networking adapter LOL) to blow air across the VR. Been running solid since 2009. I've just upgraded memory and GPU over the years - and cleaned the case & fans a few times!

I'm guessing here, but it's an educated guess, that you're overheating. When your laptop overheats it pulls the CPU and GPU processing way down to protect them. I would do some search engine work looking for threads on your laptop model and overheating and find some suggestions. And make sure all your drivers and software is up to date for your laptop and your GPU.

First, find some instructions for cleaning your cooling fans, etc. These will involve compressed air and removing a panel or two, I'd imagine.

Second, and more important, look into temperature-based or processor usage-based fan control. That may be tied to power control options, found in Control Panel. Otherwise, it could be in the BIOS. For gaming, set your laptop up for heavy-duty use. That means that the CPU won't throttle down (unless it gets critically hot) and the fans are on top speed. Hopefully it can be controlled (in BIOS or Control Panel or such) so that it's not at 100% CPU and fan all the time in that mode.

I've fought this problem on an older "gaming" laptop and these kinds of settings were readily discussed in forums. We also eventually used a dock that had a fan on it for best results. The dock was a minor hassle so, many months later, it's not being used anymore. Just the fan settings and regular cleaning.

Good luck!

Odd. Good luck!