An update on the recent games - I'll try to remember how they developed:
As the Songhai, I decided to go for Cultural Victory quite early, although it was harder than I thought. The start looked like this:
After a while, I had built the three main cities, and started thinking culturally. Unfortunately, there were other Civs I hadn't met who also built a number of coveted Wonders for my part. I did get quite a lot of cash from the Barbs, and kept that Tundra area free for some time to spawn camps. However, the land was in short supply, so when Babylon asked me to join in crushing the Aztecs, I agreed. I took Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco, and he got Teotihuacan:
Thereafter, I waited to see who the others were, and found in the end Russia, Rome, and Carthage sharing a large continent. The latter were dominant, but Rome not far off. They were clearly more advanced than me, and I had some way to go Culturally. I built my fourth city in the Barb span zone and continued developing, while building up an arsenal of CS allies. Evidently, Rome had a massive Culture and would be difficult to achieve Influence towards.
Suddenly, Babylon and Rome declared war at once. Luckily, I had a number of Units provided by Military CS and staved them off. Then I invaded Babylon, resurrected the Aztecs, and eliminated Nebuchadnezzar (he never wanted to have a Cease Fire - AI moron). I destroyed also the one Roman town on my Continent, far to the north. On the other Continent, he eliminated a number of CS, but I took advantage of my Friendship with the Russians (bordering on Rome, but no DOW) to position a number of Great Musicians. They were safe there, as he had to DOW Russia to take them. I used two, and after a while I got a Peace Treaty with him (not due to those though). Thereafter I just waited until the Cultural Vic was close, moved a GM to his border, DOW'ed and detonated a Musical Tour for the finisher. The screenshots of the end turn:
Songhai should probably have been played Domination, but I had full Religious dominance, but lay behind in Science, so I thought the Cultural was better. It was quite hard though, and Carthage/Rome were both quite menacing.
The next game gave me Aztecs on a narrow hilly/foresty/jungly Continent with Venice, Byzantium, Assyria and three CS - and Kilimanjaro. Thus, with a number of Barbs on the edges, few possibilities for expansion, Honor opening, Kilimanjaro promotion and Woodsman Jaguars, they all fell in quick succession (before year 0 I think - crucially before I met anyone else):
On a small continent close by (which in fact would have been reachable with triremes) I found Brazil, and on the next small continent, Songhai. Not much to say about the developments in this game. I assaulted Brasilia on a tiny island, razed it, threatened Sao Paulo and got a Ceasefire with the latter city as a bonus. Then I consolidated, healed and assaulted Rio, which I took rather quickly. Thereafter I kept my peace with Brazil while moving armies from east and west towards Gao, allying with his closest CS. Not long after, I attacked and took his Capital in 2-3 turns, winning quite a comfortable Domination Vic:
Now I got Japan, and while initially thinking Domination, I saw quickly that it may be difficult, sharing a continent with Assyria and Greece - which incidently are REALLY annoying when left unchecked, as people have mentioned above. He allies constantly with my CS, keeping high pressure all the time. So I went early to aim for a Cultural Vic. To be continued.
