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. You don't add in the numerous years of Germany preparing for war when you count how fast Germany conquered Poland.