I started the game with the idea of a Domination Victory using the UU. I did some mistakes early. I did not build sufficient units and had some trouble with barbs. I did not settle in the best positions, having one city (Nanking) boxed between 3 CS was a mistake, since I was at war with at least one of them since I began warring till the end of the game. But my biggest mistake was building the Mausoleum of Halikarnassos. Having some time until I got the Collective Rule, and having beelined Masonry because of all the quarries around, I decided to build a wonder. Pyramids would have been a much better choice, considering the amount of time I wasted while waiting to build roads especially around the Swedish capital (which I attacked from the north, as it was controlled by persia then ant they already started colonizing land between Swedes and the Dutch ) and the Iroquois Capital (also attacked from the north, with lots of jungle).
I got a religion because of Stone Circles: Tithe, Pagodas, and Asceticism (I actually needed it). I only enhanced when I build Pagodas in all 4 cities. As an enhancer I chose something unique for me: Just War. I used the 3rd prophet to get my religion in the Iroquois Capital for the 20% bonus, which saved me at leas turn I believe.
After the 4 cities, I started building Archers, then CBs. Beelined Machinery, and when I was getting close I started my war campaign. I used my finisher for a GE, the idea was to get Petra in Guanghzou, but that was gone, so I got Machu Pichcu to at least get some reduction in the road costs.
The first to attack were the Songhai. I captured one city with CBs but then was delayed because of their UU. I waited until I got to Machinery, and it was easy from then especially since I brought some reinforcements now that I had a road built. I got their capital, then split my army.
One part attacked the Dutch, the other continued with the attack on Songhai. In the mean time my 3rd army was attacking south of my territory, capturing Orleans which was also a Songhai puppet, and was blocking me from getting Paris. The Songhai did not give it to me in a peace deal even when their current capital was at 0HP. So I waited to get Orleans before I made peace with Songhai for all their GPT and lump gold. The dutch fell pretty easy. I used a citadel for Amsterdam.
By "army" I mean 4-7 ranged units accompanies by 1-2 melee units. I used Spearmen against Songhai, but Swordsmen for the rest of them. Because I mainly beelined the lower part of the Tech Tree, I got Pikemen quite late so Swordsmen were the main option. I bought Iron in the beginning since I did not have any.
Then I unified my first and 2nd army and marched south for Sweden (technically Persia since they wiped out Sweden). My 3rd army (which got some fresh reinforcements) was used to get Paris, and in the mean time I was building units to march towards India. I already citadel bombed them once since they had the GW, and had another GG to plant a second citadel once I DoWed them. I waited to capture Paris and get my army back to start attacking India, but I guess I could have started sooner, since India did not put up a fight.
Meantime on the Western front, I razed one Persian City, got the Swedish capital, freed the Swedes, and was already having a lot of ranged Cho-Ko-Nu's so the Persian Capital was a piece of cake. The only downside was getting my army to Stockholm and building roads to capture the Swedish cities, since they were in relatively rough terrain. I had to be careful as reinforcements in that area weren't really an option.
On the eastern front, India fell easily, and after I took 2 cities they offered me 2 more in a peace deal, one was near the Iroquois border. I took the deal and started building roads towards the Iroquois. In the mean time having researched Chemistry I built 3 cannons.
Once I declared war on the Iroquois, something strange happened: Songhai declared war and they actually had enough military to recapture Gao, but they did not have time since I captured the Iroquois capital 2 turns after the Songhai DOWed me. I think Gao would have lasted one more turn, but if it hadn't, my reinforcements were far (2 turns distance) and this would have delayed me at least 4 turns, so maybe Just War wasn't useless.
