Need strategy advice

Here's my current strategy:

Germany: Capture Leipzig to stop flip of Germany 06 (formerly Berlin).

Arabia: Capture Mansura for saltpeter (getting close to MT); capture Damascus to stop flip of Arabia 01 (incense); capture Mecca to stop any further flips.

Greece: Capture Ephesis to stop flip of Germany 03

Not sure how much more to do against Greece.

Any advice would be appreciated.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/105600/1.sav

Looks pretty good to me, but your forces seem to be a little scattered (except in Germany, of course); no doubt you're working on that now. When you attack Greece, take as much land as possible; they've got lots of grassland, and several of their cities will be fairly productive, given their proximity to your capital. For the other two civs, it might be good to make peace after achieving the objectives listed, then focus on Greece until there is no more Greece. After that, just take out Germany and Arabia in whatever order seems best to you--it won't be tough with cavalry.

One thing to note: France will give Monotheism, 8 gpt, and 3 gold for Gunpowder. If you intend to research past MT, I'd suggest making that trade since I doubt you'll be fighting them anytime soon.

Fighting pikemen is causing weariness so early that I can't war for over 5 turns without WW killing me, that's why I'm bouncing around between Arabia, Germany and now Greece (just took their capital and a couple other cities). I was hoping to time things so that after warring with one civ, the 20 turn peace deal with expire with another civ and I can start attacking them. Unfortunately my timing is waaay off. I'm hoping to take out Greece's 5 biggest cities before I have to declare peace. Since I'm the first to war with them, and their Hoplite has won a few battles, Greece has probably entered their GA, so I need to knock off the big cities ASAP.

OK, I'll take out Germany and Arabia once peace expires. I should be able to completely wipe them out because I'll have cav by then.

I DO plan to research past MT, until I get Modern Armor, but if I'm skilled enough I should be able to wipe out all civs with tank armies, assuming I build Military Academy and Pentagon. I don't want to trade gunpowder because France will trade it to someone that I WILL be fighting soon. Soon I'll have a tech lead that I shouldn't lose, at which point I may start hording techs until someone else researches them; at which point I'd sell.

Point taken about trading gunpowder to France--Germany will be easier to take down if they don't have muskets. Do you know if they have saltpeter? As of the save you posted, they had none visible.

It doesn't look like you need much advice at this point--you've got this one. Your comment about war weariness did get me to thinking, though. You've built lots of swords and maces, but no cats, trebs, or cannons. I usually don't bother with pre-artillery bombardment units myself, preferring one-dimensional warfare with fast attackers to combined arms, but if you don't have access to fast units, combined arms can help cut your losses and therefore keep war weariness at bay.

A couple of comments without having looked at your save: Got an army that you can use to pillage their iron? As to Norton II's remark about combined arms vs. fast attackers, I frequently use two stacks. One of fast attackers and another of one-move units and rock-throwers. The fast attackers kill anything left in the open and pillage resources and roads and the slow movers & rock-throwers take cities.

@Norton II - Not sure at this point if Germany has saltpeter. I completely forgot that I had the ability to build horsemen for scouting - I'm riding towards Germany for recon now. Good call!

Like you, I don't build pre-artillery bombardment units - never been impressed with them.

@Aabraxan - Haven't popped an army yet. If I had one I'd be using it for attacking cities, not pillaging. I read an interesting article about pillaging and seems like a good idea if fighting a superior civ, but I usually attack only weaker ones, and use MA's for superior ones.

Your two-stack theory sounds very interesting. What's the makeup and size? What works against D2 and D3 units. I usually need 3 midevil warriors to take out 2 pikemen/hoplites.

Obviously, it depends on what I've got and what I'm facing, but 4-6 horsemen can take out a lot of stray AI archers and spears. Frankly, I get frustrated keeping fast units and plodders in the same stack. I think that's why I started splitting stacks. The AI will continually send stuff piecemeal, so if you pillage roads and resources, eventually it will start leaving units flat-footed in the open. Unlike Norton II, I do build cats & trebs. Put them in the stack with the swords and MI (it's not like they'll get left behind), and throw lots of rocks. In addition to weakening defenders, they help me count defenders. You can't investigate a city if you're at war.