Dune: Spice Wars

So even though this is the longest time sink (at least in my experience) it can be done on the same playthrough as any other victory style

Settings:
Kanly Duel
Faction picks are Ecaz or Corrino for yourself and Smugglers as the opponent
Difficulty can be Whatever your heart desires
Disable Assassination Victory, this will cripple the Smugglers best play

Start Game


Select your Scout and quickly find as many spice sources as possible, Check those Villages and plan military units to at least the same level and Annex them quickly (Due to the smaller map you'll have a better chance of ensuring the AI is smothered by lack of resource)

Build second Scout to find Special regions (You'll know it's special by the gold star in the top right of the scene icon) and quickly move to annex them.

Keep following the hegemony line through resources and boom ya got it!

Personally I made a save while running through a Political Victory, completed that then reloaded and nuked peeps and took their special regions