Letting Mongols Do The Heavy Lifting.
In DoC 1.81, the AI Mongols get a free conqueror stack against the following civs:
Russia, Arabia, Seljuks, Persia, Byzantines. Their main army goes on to attack China.
It is to help simulate the historic Mongol Empire, and also to accelerate it's fall through rapid expansion.
Back before 1.81 was released and everyone was still testing the game,
it was not uncommon for
everyone to be twelve and what is this?:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=11272994&postcount=280
But now it's been balanced so that the Mongols collapse roughly between
1400-1500 most of the time.
Both China & Persia get a guaranteed rebirth during that time.
As Ming (still China) & Iran respectively.
The former is important to consider when you are playing Japan,
as the new 3rd Japanese UHV requires you to control China
(which is much more safely done by vassalizing them after their rebirth)
Now, the reason why I let the Mongols live is because I wanted vassals.
Russia in particular. Sometimes during the Mongol conquests, civs will throw themselves into your arms for your protection.
This is a prime time to get vassals. However, if they're stubborn (like China usually is),
then you should wait until after the civ dies and becomes reborn to vassalize them (when they are weak and very eager to go under someone's protection).
Playing for a Domination/Conquest victory practically requires big civs like Russia, Arabia & China to fall under your wing.
And letting Mongols live is one of the keys to that, in my opinion.
But first, before we can take any vassals (we already have Monarchy obviously, but that isn't what we
really need), there's something we have to do first.
Not this, but look! We met Dharmasetu of the Indonesians.
The Indonesians are a new addition to DoC, as Srivijaya was historically
a very significant and cultured civilization in the Indonesian region.
Indonesia is also a very large and relatively significant region today as well
so their inclusion is certainly not without merit.
We win the Liberalism race in 1270AD.
Miles ahead of even the closest European.
Well, it's time to pick a tech isn't it?
And the one that we are going for is Astronomy!
Astronomy serves a dual purpose in DoC.
Apart from unlocking Galleons and the dubiously useful Resettlement,
DoC makes it so that you're no longer able to vassalize civs that are on different continents.
However, Astronomy allows you to vassalize faraway civs.
I was going to try and vassalize either Mongolia itself (who was fighting a war against Byzantines, Russians & Germans all at once) or some other civ.
...My gambit didn't work, because unfortunately...
I forgot that I was still at war with the English & the Egyptians.
We destabilize India as they're getting a little strong;
Khmer is their vassal and I don't want to risk another southern invasion.
Meanwhile, our war correspondent in the Far West brings breaking news
about the Franco-Spanish War that is still raging on.
The Spanish have captured Pompeii (an Independent city) but razed it as they didn't want multiple fronts to defend and wanted to press an attack on Rome.
On the Iberian Peninsula itself, the French appear to have the upper hand, sending in an invasion crew to take Tarragona.
Hedge your bets, everybody!