I swear that was the most # of wars I got myself in since GnK. 4 with Japan, 2 with Polynesia, 1 with France, and 2 with CS, including the worker steal.
Anyway from last time... After Sistine I completed Uffizi in my cap and PT in Pasargardae (which would grow to be very much a 2nd capitol later in the game)
I grew and grew and consolidated my position. Went into radio and picked Freedom (of course! turned out I was the lone Freedom again
I swear something weird is in the code if an AI with a skeleton empire of 2 cities left still wants to go for Order the devs really need to look at it) took tech lead and a good share of wonders. I see Poland picked exploration so I did not go for Louvre (and with Uffizi, you don't need Louvre anyway) but I got pretty much every other wonder after modern except Broadway and Brandenburg.
Japan and me became mortal enemies, and I decided I could ignore befriending him because he is completely crippled, having adopted pure honor his cities were not growing, and his culture was pitiful. Unluckily for me Kamehameha DoF'd him out of the blue! That led to denouncement, which I reciprocated with one of my own, seeing as how he had bad relations with those on his continent. I got Poland and Sully as my friends.
Things pretty much looked like the pictures above. I made Poland WC host after Carthage founded WC (I had a choice between Greece and Poland but chose Poland because I know Casey is sometimes loyal but Alex remains a douche in any game) also because of his wonderwhoring I expected great things from him. He didn't disappoint. Historical Landmarks, and then Cultural Heritage sites were his proposals. I got both proposals passed without suffering any diplomatic penalty.
Sometime close to industrial era I had seen a Japanese great general heading for my borders (but they were weak from fighting Sully) and thus the 3rd Japanese war happened with a DoW from me. At the end of it when I decided to let Sully finish the job (which he didn't... and that would come to haunt me later) so the Japanese empire looked like this with my citadel sitting very comfortably near Kyoto. The 3rd Japanese war also coincided with the first Polynesian war after somehow Kame decided he wanted to help his friend out... but his empire is literally an ocean away and I made white peace with him eventually without any issues.
Anyway, things were going along beautifully (was late to archaeology but no one on my continent had it so I built Dido a landmark;
that landmark I built for her probably won me the game). Then boom! my wonderwhoring got Alex's attention and then a denouncement from him... and then he had the nerve to DoF Japan! (sucks that he had DoF with Sully and once my own DoF expired, Sully denounced me... and accepting DoF from Dido didn't help either as she denounced Sully the turn right after the DoF!
I swear she's so evil sometimes without even meaning to be... in short, Sully became my enemy.)
Well, I did what every good enemy should do: bribe Dido to clean his clock, and she did, reducing him to a pitiful state. Meanwhile I sent Poland and France at Greece. Things were going beautifully! Napoleon was not a friend but he was friendly, after Poland got flight tech he wiped Greece out (I had struggled to get CS allies all game because my first lvl 3 spy died on his very first coup at 66%... and then WC was founded and Alex was dumping loads and loads of gold into them) and globalization gave me WC control after Greece was eliminated. France, Poland and Carthage loved my proposals, but the smaller, weaker civs hated it. Kame somehow self-imploded after Alex got him embargoed (earlier Dido had passed embargo CS) and Honolulu was stuck at size 18 for a looooong time for some reason, and he became a non-factor. So my friends are strong, and my enemies are weak. Nonetheless I usually don't have enemies in my CV games but the war with Japan and the citadel snowballed into something I never imagined. Well, OK, I thought, who cares about them... their culture is pitiful.
This game did not have the best international relations... lots of red from everyone and very little green. I had my mini-coalition with Poland and Carthage (by coalition I meant no one has denounced the other yet...) Diplo was VERY tricky this game and I had to walk through several minefields.
20 turns away from winning just by passive pressure, only France left to be influenced and I was simply waiting for the moment to buy GMs, then, this weird thing happened... huh... Sully... what are you thinking... he didn't accept a "shall we declare war on" invitation either because he Dow'd alone on the turn.
Even my advisor thinks you're nuts...
Well, 2-3 turns afterwards... Japan and Polynesia Dow'd me
(as a rule, AIs much more likely to DoW you if you are already in a war.) No problem... I kicked Japan's ass again and my wolfpack nuclear subs eviscerated Polynesian subs, battleships, and carriers and plundered cargo ships. However I did not have battleships or missile cruisers so I couldn't launch any serious threat against them...
Then the worst thing that could happen, happened. Napoleon Dow'd me out of the blue despite the two green buffs I had with him and the fact that our borders are not even the least bit close! We are half a world away! Anyhow, after losing OB, routes, and diplomat I would've needed 400+ turns to win by passive pressure. Ouch. Also, did you know that if you escort a GM with a submarine unit in the ocean, a battleship attack will kill the GM, but leave the submarine untouched. I lost a GM this way. All because of that bastard Sully who is rotting in the bowels of hell after I pummeled his last city with rocket artillery and let Dido finish the job. (precisely because, you know, I still wanted to have SOME friends and the warmonger penalty is working against me here). I was praying Dido would not betray me (at least, not before I win) with +3 green modifiers and thankfully she didn't.
Well eventually I mustered up enough GM again and sent them on their merry way, this time securing perimeter with my subs such that nothing could touch them and then this... the stupid CS wouldn't budge its ships despite the fact that the French city it apparently is trying to attack is not coastal! Well... anyway the game has been a mess, so what's one more DoW? Sunk the CSs ships (wasting my influence with it completely) with my subs and finished the game.
During all this time... my empire was beautiful as always though... see how gorgeous my cities are? With WC proposal a good chunk of my tourists are apparently exchange students who come to study at my numerous academies.
Beautiful right? And 160 hammers on food focus (with mines worked I can go even higher). Pentagon in 8 turns. Who needs observatories when you can simply have more space for academies? Btw, I recall another poster saying the GBR spot is bad... well... I grew a size 30 there with just one land route so maybe it's not as bad as you think!?