No, not 26 weeks, the game starts on week 52 of 2012. I had a year of loitering around consolidating my power in the south with the Gaia league and building up forces. Actively conquering took 26 weeks.
Really, 2 levels honestly won't give the AI that big of an advantage... Prod bonus is negligible since they get so high in production anyways with all the insane production buildings.
I forgot to reply on this when I came back but now I'll do that.

What I meant was that you conquered the whole world in 26 weeks from the first attack. Not from the start of the game.

