So I am playing Ethiopia (cre/org) @ emperor with 3 continents selected, 9 civs total, epic speed, no barbs. I nabbed GLH at a choke point city blocking Hannibal and Ragnar, the latter who recently volunteer vassalized to the former, both of whom I have at friendly.

I founded some island blocking cities and closed borders with Hannibal to keep him from back settling, as there are about 5 more places I can settle. Just got astro from liberalism and opened borders with all but 2 overseas, giving me extra profit from trade routes, although the Mercantilism age will be coming around soon. Also traded resources so have extra health/happy.

Here's the screens:
http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/3108/civ4screenshot0005z.jpg
http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/9162/civ4screenshot0006u.jpg
http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/5716/civ4screenshot0007u.jpg
http://img121.imageshack.us/img121/7715/civ4screenshot0009.jpg
http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/8484/civ4screenshot0010.jpg
http://img121.imageshack.us/img121/820/civ4screenshot0011.jpg

Due to my strong capital and GLH I can win the game, but I am trying to figure out the best strat. Space may be hard due to lack of production, so I am leaning towards a long military campaign. Atm I have SM as a placeholder, but going that route and taking communism for Kremlin whipping may be viable due to the multiple seafood cities I have. Having stone and first to communism will ensure I get the Kremlin, but I have never really used Kremlin whipping.

So my questions. Who do I attack first, friendly Hannibal/Ragnar or the other continent? Using which military techs? Drafted rifle/treb or rifle/cannon, or Kremlin whipped Cavs?

I don't anticipate a quick domination win, so after cavs what are my next units to Kremlin whip? Infantry/cannons, infantry/arty, or even infantry/fighters? Should I whip factories/power in my whipping cities?

1.) It is pretty strange that you haven't traded (bought) maps yet. I don't know how you can possibly make an informed decision of who to attack next and with what without knowing what your opponent's land looks like.

2.) Why take liberalism now? Nobody has education, most don't even have philosophy or paper. You could've gotten something like steel or rifling. I say this not knowing how much you're making off trade routes, but you could've just wasted a lot of beakers there.

Here are the other 2 continents.

http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/995/civ4screenshot0015x.jpg

I took Astro so I could get better trade routes, which were pretty significant, and resources to grow my cities ASAP. I also didn't want to waste hammers and upkeep on military police. Although it would probably been better to partial bulb astro with my unused GS, then could have taken SM or communism with lib, or something else if I didn't go for communism. Oh well, live and learn.

for starters i'd proberly keep setting the islands to the north (move the city you have planed on the sheeps 1s) ... and the land is certainly good enough for space ... the sercet word is SP/CS impowered Workshops

of targets i'd proberly either take Monty or Justin since both seem somewhat weak, (Justin have allready been streamrolled by Augustus once) ... true, you don't know what techs Monty have but those are the continent i'd proberly start with

for starters i'd proberly keep setting the islands to the north (move the city you have planed on the sheeps 1s) ... and the land is certainly good enough for space ... the sercet word is SP/CS impowered Workshops

of targets i'd proberly either take Monty or Justin since both seem somewhat weak, (Justin have allready been streamrolled by Augustus once) ... true, you don't know what techs Monty have but those are the continent i'd proberly start with

Yeah, the sheep city is supposed to be 1S, guess I misclicked while quickly dotmapping :).

I guess I could mass workshop/watermill to get some production for space parts, but I'm mostly concerned that someone on a continent with better land will be hot on my tail once their cottages start maturing and the AI bonuses (?) start kicking in. I have to wonder with my somewhat lower production potential if I could still win the space race. I suppose once I'm almost finished researching shuttle part techs, I could mass plow my capital's cottages for SP CS workshops and toss Ironworks there for good measure. The capital is really the only place with 20 land tiles in its fat cross, and a couple other production cities could turn out smaller parts.

For starters get that city above your capita asap. It has corn, gems and an abundance of grassland on top of the fact that it is coastal. This one brings in money from turn 1. Go there asap.

Next step after all your libraries/universities is to get a military tech like rifling and kick Ragnar and Hannibal of the continent. You can get all technologies fairly easily so you have an incredible tech lead after that.

I like the expansion drift btw. Very nice settling all the islands.

Yeah I should settle the spot just north of the capital ASAP. It would make a better production site with SP workshops than the city to the west of my capital (Addis Ababa) and can steal the iron from A.A. and even a hill from the capital which would give it 8 grassland workshops, 1 green hill, and 1 green flat iron. HE would be ok here, or heck just cottage in the meantime for commerce.

Back to victory conditions, a quick war against Hannibal/Ragnar would definetly give me the production for a space victory, and of course extra commerce in the meantime. I just traded for fresh maps from these two and while there is not much in the way of cottages, I could cottage spam for commerce but they will be a long time in maturing since I likely won't run emancipation any time soon.

Space may be the easiest route here so I won't have to deal with the micromanagement of drafting/whipping from a bunch of islands and picking them up with boats. Of course airports would make this easier, so I could still consider overseas conquest once flight comes around.

i personally wouldn't war on Hannibal and Rangar currently ... they're you're best trading partners