A common saying at
wrap up for an
Assassins' guild game. If you fail to
achieve your goals in the course of the game, you can't say, "Postgame, my character hunts yours down and steals back the amulet of
Amon Ra."
There is no postgame.
As applied to strategy games, this is the flip side of the lesson taught by "The enemy's gate is down." What matters is whether or not you won, not whether or not someone else will win the turn after you did.