My current emperor game

I'm playing wide / huge as Assyria with all the expansions / DLC. I spawned on the top of a continent, the Moroccans were directly below me, and Austria was SE on a southern peninsula. The settings are Emperor and Epic.

I expanded south until I collided with Morocco. I captured their capital and razed all of their expansions except one south of the capital and on the coast.

Then I expanded west from my capital until I collided with a city state that is now my ally.

Next I brought my troops down to Austria and started razing their cities. At the end of it I have their capital and one of their expansion cities on the coast. I have my own expansion cities boxing their remaining city in against the coast. I have a city state ally almost touching their northern border.

While fighting Austria the Moroccans managed to found more cities that I eventually razed and then surrounded their borders with new expansions of my own.

So currently my continent is almost covered in my cities with the Moroccans and Austrians isolated against the coast surrounded by either me or my city state allies. The Moroccans do have one other city far away from me on the eastern coast of the continent.

As a result of this Poland and Ethiopia declared war with me and Babylon has been denouncing me and otherwise being hostile.

They're all on other continents so I've been ignoring them but Austria and Morocco have declared war on me again. I'm having no trouble holding them back but no matter how many of their units I kill they will not negotiate peace.

Eventually I made friends with India and opened a research agreement. I also bribed India and The Huns to declare war on Babylon. Out of the blue Poland and Ethiopia both negotiate peace and offer me 20 GPT each. I've been giving GPT and luxury bribes to Siam and The Huns because I want to declare friendship and start research agreements so I can catch up in science.

I also am tied for most number of delegates in world congress and currently pushing scholars in residence (20% faster research for a tech another civ already knows).

Currently I have 13 cities earning ~200 beakers and ~160 GPT. I have 3 that are production power houses and Austria's expansion city that I control is my only coastal city with any sort of production.

Here come my questions!

I'm terribly behind in science. My beakers per turn is pretty low and I think I'm about half an era behind the other civs. I'm planning to use scholars in residence and RAs with India, Siam, and The Huns to catch up. But I need friendship with Siam and The Huns to do this. What's the fastest way to get them to accept or offer declaration of friendship? I've been bribing with GPT and free luxuries; what else can I do?

My second question is should I negotiate peace with Austria and Morocco or just wipe them out? If I wipe them out I'm sure the other civs will hate me but if I leave them around they're just going to keep declaring war (and that's assuming I can even get peace with them). A followup question is if I shouldn't wipe them out how can I get them to accept peace? I'll have artillery soon so I guess if I bombard their current capitals they'll accept? Right?

My third question is in relation to my goal of domination victory. I don't want the AI to recognize that I'm nearing my goal and start breaking deals with me. Once I get territory on the other continent I think I'm planning to push my borders / conquest up to other capitals but hold off on taking them. When I pull ahead in science / military tech / units I can try and bum rush the remaining capitals near my borders. Is this a viable strategy? Will it fool the AI of friendly civs into keeping agreements with me because they don't recognize I'm close to victory?

Oh and thanks for reading!

I wouldn't bother to get RA with AI at all. I mean, you are freaking Assyria! Use your UA to the max! Go do a conquering spree and comeback with lots of stolen tech! That is way more efficient then three RA. I would recommend you at least cripple the Morocco and Austria if you don't want to wipe them out, but I think you are going to incur warmongering penalties with AI anwyay so I don't see the problem of kicking their butt off the planet if they bug you.

Once you are safe in your own continent. build/buy loads of frigate, beeline to Electronics and upgrade them to battleship. (remember they need oil so research biology too, and refrigeration for some sweet submarine and offshore oil resources if you have them). The AI generally have no counter for a mass battalion of 3-hex-indirect-firing ships, so you can safely bomb their coastal city and massacre their land unit, which give you more techs. Also use your submarine to dominate the sea and guard your homeland and those precious battleship. By then you should be unstoppable and you don't have to worry about AI warring you (Also, if you have a strong enough military, AI won't simply DOW easily)

P.S. this works on Immortal.