Just interested in general views on how you determine who to go after for a domination victory. I feel I often make the wrong decision about which AI to go for first (e.g. after a keshik or rush). Generally, I go for the weakest immediate neighbours as a first target, but I'd like some thoughts on a runaway civ highest in score. Let's say by T120 there is clear leader, would you target them as a priority or just gradually conquer on a geographical basis, relying on your puppetted tech and gold to overcome them later?

I'd take down an annoying neighbor's capital even if he's not the leader. Generally though, I'd confront the leader.

trust me, you want to kill people near the leader, then kill the leader FAST!!! When it is late game and they have massive empire without unhappiness & gold penalty you will be in trouble.

In general, it's best to take down weaker civs first, and try and make friends with the leader. You can always come back to him/her last with nukes. See for example Japan in my Bab2lon game and Germany in Songhai.

trust me, you want to kill people near the leader, then kill the leader FAST!!! When it is late game and they have massive empire without unhappiness & gold penalty you will be in trouble.
On the contrary. Late game wars are usually quick and painless. You have a tech lead and ability to move fast, use missiles and other very powerful units like RA which eliminate any resistance in literally couple of turns. Capital only sometimes can be conquered in one turn. Why would you wear yourself down fighting a monster during early/mid game when there are easier targets around?

Depending on how do you want to win - as fast as possible or just to win :) Generally up to the prince level just beeline to swordmen and kill everyone with them. Longswordmen will defenetly do the job. That might/should work also on the king and emperor.

when I'm looking for a fastest time, then I pick my targets so I waste as little moves as possible.

But taking out the strongest civ first is always smart thing.

Picking on the weakest civ is great, but don't divert all your attention there as someone will probably backstab you. (That runaway civ that you didn't notice doubling your points and lining up troops on your border?)

Unfortunately taking on a powerful civ is difficult. If you can wear them down a bit, maybe take a small city, it will set them back slightly.

On the topic of war, I had an interesting one in my current game. I thought I was at risk of being attacked by the runaway Civ of the game, Arabia, so I signed a defensive pact with long term friend China. Babylon, another long term friend of mine DoWs china and drags me into it. (I forgot Defensives work both ways :P ) Long story short, I was busy fighting the Incans, didn't send a single troop towards Babylon but 10 turns later, Nebby wants to make peace offering me all his gold and resources. How odd.

Geography and diplomacy, rather than score, is normally what determines the order of my targets. Always go for a neighbour, preferably someone on the edge of the map/continent so your borders don't grow. If one of the AI is getting gangbanged, its good to join in as it will be easier to take cities and you won't suffer as many diplomatic penalties for declaring war - maybe even pick up friends by being at war together.

yeah the importance of geography should not be understated. If other things are equal, you want to take the civ that by taking their land, will anger the least amount of other civs. Taking down the guy in the middle of everyone will open you up to backstabs/DOWs by the surrounding civs, whereas taking out the guy on the end of your peninsula will have a much more manageable effect on defense & diplomacy.

I like to pick off the low hanging fruit first. Frankly, it is very hard to lose in this game, even at the highest levels, if you have two Civs worth of land mass, resources, science, etc.

I find late war much easier than early war so I save the strongest opponents for last, after my 2x or 3x sized Civ has reached a nearly unstoppable mass.

Leave the strongest civ for last.

Sell him cities to drain his gold.

Use the gold to buy more units for the final confrontation.

The best way to deal with a civ that threatens to become a runaway is to become an even bigger runaway yourself. You do that by destroying all of the weaker civs first.

Always good advice to thin the flock before taking on another wolf. Also, you'll most certainly have the opportunity to fight a defensive war and take advantage of the AI's poorly managed offense. Destroy a large army, then immediately go on the offensive. Press for a good settlement, then sell him cities during the brief period of peace. Then take it all back :)

Thanks all, v good advice. Thought I was going about it prob the wrong way by confronting the leader(s) too early.

Always go for neighbors first. Don't worry about some civ going on a rampage.. you can't affect it if it is far away, so just be better than him and grow on your own turf.