I'll put some thumbnails at the end of this so you can see the situation for yourself, but here it is in a nutshell: Huge, Marathon, Continents, 13 opponents (2 of whom I destroyed b4 1800BC), Playing Darius (Fin, Org). I have an enormous empire. I seized the capitals and took the best surrounding land of two opponents in the very early stages. I then used my leader traits to expand my economy, and maintain a solid tech lead throughout. The only close rival I have in tech is Gandhi, and he's my vassal (voluntary). I have mining inc up and running in all cities, and factories too. Again, my only rival in manufacturing is my own vassal. There are three continents, and the denizens of the other two are backwards, and hopelessly backwards respectively.

My primary rival is Joao, who doesn't have Steel or Steam. He's also got Monty and Victoria as Vassals. My current thinking is this: Use my superior military to take the two best cities of Portugal, landlocking him. Get him to capitulate. (side question...does this make his vassals mine?) Then start prepping for an intercontinental assault on Byzantium (hopelessly backwards - longbowmen...really!) and get him to capitulate. This should give me the strength to win on diplomacy after fighting two short wars with massive tech disparity.

Good plan, or should I take it all? should I build a spaceship? It's even possible to win via culture, though it will take many, many, many turns, and this gives too much chance for others to screw up my plans, imo.

http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/9626/1688mfggraph.th.jpg (http://img193.imageshack.us/i/1688mfggraph.jpg/) http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/2410/1688demos.th.jpg (http://img193.imageshack.us/i/1688demos.jpg/) http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/3074/1688tactical.th.jpg (http://img17.imageshack.us/i/1688tactical.jpg/)
In the picture of the portugese border, I have highlighted his best defended city.

With your production, and infantry - joao is still at least 2 techs from AL or machine guns, sounds like you hit him with infantry and artillery, if you have artillery. With that level of production - no hope for the AI to keep up. If he caps, his vassals break free, but they'll likely quickly cap to you as well.

Easiest approach is probably going to be hitting Joao, since Justy is so far behind there's no rush in killing him.

So i take that to mean you approve of my current strategy? (don't have artillery yet, but can in short order)

I approve of any strategy involving superior production, infantry and artillery against any AI defense prior to industrialism.

Post-industrialism, some anti-tanks are probably worthwhile as well.

But if I have the production capacity and at least tech parity, I'll always hit the strongest target first. If I don't, that's when I'll go after the weaker targets first to gain their land (getting more production capacity).

side question...does this make his vassals mine?
You wished... :p

Short awnser : No

I approve of any strategy involving superior production, infantry and artillery against any AI defense prior to industrialism.

Post-industrialism, some anti-tanks are probably worthwhile as well.

But if I have the production capacity and at least tech parity, I'll always hit the strongest target first. If I don't, that's when I'll go after the weaker targets first to gain their land (getting more production capacity).Kill the strongest first...been true since civ was played on Amigas.

Update: the war goes well. Should have Joao on his knees within 10 turns (after I sack Lisbon, he'll beg for mercy)