Immortal University XVII - Peter

Considered moving NW-N for the coast but moving the scout revealed no extra seafood so opted to settle in place. Moscow will probably be a good cottage capital.

Started on Animal Husbandry, but scout popped it from a hut three turns in, so switched to Agriculture. Second hut popped for map of the sea, third for 37 gold and fourth for Writing. Pretty nice, especially since Peter's Philosophical, so early libraries are extra helpful. My scout did a really good job revealing the map as well but eventually died to a barbarian archer in 2280BC.

Turn 7 I met Sury and groaned. After Agriculture went to BW. St. Petersburg was founded 1N of the corn to get the fish, pigs and copper in its BFC. I've been switching the corn from Moscow to St. Pete as necessary. My next priority was to block Sury. I spent a long, long time looking at the map and had a really hard time deciding on city sites.

Eventually I decided to grab two silks and the wheat by settling on the desert hill. Unfortunately I discover that Sury has beaten me to it:



I settle Novgorod 1E of the wheat instead, and Rostov up north to grab the two fish and further block Sury. At this point I thought we are isolated with Sury, so I skipped Alphabet and went for Iron Working so I can settle the jungle area with the gems. IW came in and turns out I missed the iron with both Novgorod and Rostov:



Ugh. Copernicus was also born that turn, and I settled him in Moscow. My slider was low and since I thought we were isolated bulbing (Math) seemed pointless.

Sury then converted to Buddhism in 600BC, but was not the founder, so I realized we are in fact not isolated. Sure enough, Pacal's workboat greeted me a few turns later. Both are Buddhist so hopefully it will spread to me as well. This also means that Alphabet is not totally useless to me now (neither one has it). I decided to research Mathematics so that the next GS (this time from St. Petersburg) can bulb Alphabet, which he did in 400BC.

My plan now is to settle three more cities and hopefully convert to Buddhism, and basically consolidate the empire and tech towards Civil Service and Liberalism eventually. I don't see any wars any time soon, there's enough land for now.

Northern Russia:



Southern Russia:



St. Petersburg (I thought I took a shot of Moscow as well but I guess not; it's working some cottages and has one scientist specialist as well):



Tech situation:



I could probably trade Alphabet for Sailing, which I do want for seafood protection and as a pre-requisite for Calender, but that seems a bit of a ripoff. I'd rather not take Poly or Archery with it cause I don't need them at the moment and I'd like to avoid WFYABTA as much as possible. But it depends on what Pacal is researching, I guess. I'll fish around to see what he offers me, maybe it'll turn out he's a few turns away from getting it himself. Sury's after Construction.

The gems are really helping.

375BC: Opened borders with Pacal in case he feels like sending a Buddhist missionary my way. Traded my pig for his sheep to boost relations.

175BC: Alphabet for Sailing from Pacal, Alphabet for Polytheism from Sury (to open up Lit and Mono eventually). Gave gems for silver to Sury, also to build up good relations.

125BC: An event destroys my wheat farm at Novgorod.



75BC: AP is built under Buddhism.

25AD: Yakutsk is settled down south for the pigs and copper. Give fish to Pacal for incense.

50AD: Sury is 4 turns away from Calender which I just finished. I give it to him for 70g. He wanted to throw in Archery as well but I declined.



75AD: Confucianism spreads in Russia, but that's the wrong religion!

225AD: Galileo born in St. Petersburg, he builds an Academy in Moscow. Finish CoL and start Civil Service. Khmer empire now fully scouted; Pacal's nowhere to be seen, so he's on another landmass.

250AD: Buddhism spreads in Yekaterinburg, I revolt. Give silk to Pacal for 7gpt.



275AD: AP vote comes up, I vote for for Sury for diplo bonus. They're both at Pleased now! CoL to Sury for Priesthood + 50g, since Pacal already had it.

375AD: Currency to Sury for 130g, again Pacal already had it.

400AD: Beg 50g from Pacal and he's nice enough to hand it over. I can finish Civil Service in 2 turns with deficit research.

475AD: Thought about trading Civil Service to Sury and Pacal, for Masonry>Monotheism and/or Monarchy. Decided against it. I can research these fast and they count towards WFYABTA. I'll be getting a GS in Rostov in 15 turns so I will make a big civic change: Hereditary Rule (Pacal's favorite)/Bureaucracy/Caste System/Organized Religion (Sury's favorite). Also, Pacal already has Paper.

600AD: Smolensk, Moai city, finally settled. Last city.



620AD: Re-negotiate deal with Pacal - now he wants clam for his incense, not fish. Okay.

640AD: Sury asks for CS. I decline, get a -2 diplo modifier, but that's okay since I'll soon be in OR.

680AD: Pacal already has Paper, so I trade it to Sury for Compass, world map and 30g. He's researching Divine Right so I'm not worried about Edu/Lib from him, it's Pacal who's the main concern. I debated whether or not to do Paper+CS for Feudalism and get Compass from Pacal for CS, but decided against it. CS will remain my monopoly for now. Map reveals Pacal on a small, crappy desert island off Sury's coast, but with three founded religions.



700AD: Sury offers Feudalism for CS +25g... I think about it and decline, since I actually don't need Feudalism at the moment.

720AD: GS born, burned for GA. I switch civics, Pacal goes to Friendly, will now trade Metal Casting and 30g for CS. I do it, then seek Sury's trade from the previous turn but now, since Pacal also knows CS, its value has gone down and he won't give me Feudalism for it. I switch research from Education to Feudalism for one turn.

740: CS to Sury for Feudalism and 35g. Not sure if it was a mistake to trade away CS but since I'm in Caste now I wanted MC from Pacal so I can workshop some of my cities, so trading it to Sury as well made sense. During the GA I'm running as many scientists as possible in all cities to hurry Education and generate more great people.

800AD: I give my one remaining clam to Sury for 10gpt since I don't want to lower my slider. I'm Expansive anyway. Pacal can already research Nationalism and has Marble. I think the Taj is lost, so if I win Lib I have to consider what I want to take with it.

820AD: 3rd largest civ? That's unexpected. Sury's number one.



880AD: 1 turn from Edu, but so is Pacal and he's got Philosophy on me. Just got a GS, maybe I can bulb Philo and somehow win Liberalism anyway.

900AD: Pacal's 6 turns from Liberalism, and my GS will not even bulb Philo, but rather Aesthetics. So Lib is lost.

Stopped here because even though I am doing okay in terms of empire size and research, I seriously have no strategy at the moment and no plan. I could go cultural with the three religions that I have now (and possibly Sushi or Radio wonders)... or aim for Mass Media and the UN, but that won't work if Sury's my competition. I could build up for a war against Sury, but I see no real reason to war against him since we're good buddies now. Then again I suppose a successful war might win me the game since I'll be the largest civ. Not sure.

I also have nothing to trade to either one at the moment. I think the best thing at the moment is tech towards Optics and Astronomy and re-assess the situation after I meet the rest of the world.

Sorry about the lack of pics and stuff, but once again, a big writeup of mine has been deleted due to the forum ads...

Anyway, my scout revealed clams up north so I gambled on settling Moscow 1N1NW and that worked because I even got copper there! Anyway, I thought about rushing Sury but then I remembered that he is extremely difficult to rush so I decided against it. I built the Great Lighthouse and the Pyramids (aided by the stone) and am now teching towards Civil Service. There's still plenty of land for me in the south. I haven't met anyone else, but I know Sury has because of his espionage points allocations.

Since Lib is lost I decide to go for the bottom half of the tech tree. I want to up my power numbers. Though I'm safe from Sury/Pacal, it will be good for when I meet the rest of the world, and I'm thinking of using Cossacks against someone, possibly Sury (though I'm wary of the AP stopping any wars).

I'm going to put stables in my production cities and start building horse archers/knights for upgrade later. Also Yakutsk will start making galleys.

Yekaterinbug is producing buddhist missionaries since at the moment it's the only Russian city with Buddhism.

900AD: Education to Sury for HB and Construction, map and some gold. Possibly a mistake. He goes to friendly.

980AD: Forgot I needed Archery for horse archers. Beg it from Sury and he gives it to me.

1000AD: Pacal discovers Lib.

1040: Gunpowder to Sury for Machinery and Aesthetics. Yakutsk begins nonstop production of Horse Archers. Research Lit this turn so I can get Music from Pacal next turn in a trade. GS bulbs part of Printing Press.

1050AD: Gunpower to Pacal for Meditation, Optics and 260g. Too many techs to get, still need Philo and Nationalism and a whole bunch of stuff.

1060AD: Pacal completes the Taj. Printing Press due in 2 turns.

1080AD: Meet Suleiman, and he's Jewish. Tempted to trade Paper to him but I know it's unwise before meeting the rest of the AIs. Put one turn into Guilds so I can trade PP to Pacal.

1090AD: PP and Edu to Suleiman for Philo and Engineering. I couldn't help myself. If some AI gets pissy about this trade later I'll make them my first target. Suleiman goes to Pleased and his map reveals his continent, which he is sharing with Hannibal, Joao and Egypt.



1100AD: Circumnavigation bonus via the map trades. Nice. I have started on Astronomy but turns out Pacal almost has it so I switch to Chemistry. My upcoming GS will bulb part of it as well.

1130AD: Pacal adopts Free Religion and Sury suddenly doesn't like him as much anymore.

1150AD: Meet Hannibal, also Jewish (and founder) and good friends with Suleiman. GS bulbs most of Chemistry.

1160Ad: Guilds and Chemistry to Suleiman for Nationalism. Gunpowder to Hannibal for Banking. At this point I've decided that I'm going for Sury with Cossacks. Start on Replaceable Parts.

1220AD: Chemistry to Pacal for five turns of Replaceable Parts, Drama and some gold.

1250AD: I get an event to improve relations with Sury, but decline. I need the gold and I plan on eliminating him soon anyway.

1300AD: Replaceable Parts to Suleiman for Astronomy. I make a couple of resource deals with Suleiman and Hannibal.





1330AD: RP to Hannibal for Economics, and I also give him copper for 5gpt.

1360AD: Rifling done, Smolensk begins training Riflemen for city defence. My forces are gathering at Novgorod. Begin Military Tradition, unfortunately Suleiman won't trade it to me, I guess he has a monopoly on it.

1390AD: Rifling to Pacal for 970 gold. I hope this doesn't backfire on me but I want all the money I can get for upgrades.



1420AD: Meet Ramesess. He's Hindu. Him and Hannibal were apparently at war but have now made peace. Sury goes into WHEOOH mode, interesting. He's not after me, that's for sure, so I can only hope he'll be shipping some of that army across the ocean at someone. MT is in, I drop the slider to 0 to do some upgrades.



1450AD: Rifling and MT to Hannibal for Democracy.

1500AD: Sury converts to Islam, sealing his fate. My lone axeman roaming around his empire still can't find anything worthy of being called a stack of doom. I'm hoping his power is all walls and castles which my cossacks will happily ignore. I meet Joao as well and open borders.

1520AD: I put the science slider back up since I'm done upgrading. Sury's spreading Islam all over Russia; those are hammers that he's not spending on an army.

1530AD: Ready with two stacks of Cossacks.





Isvarapura captured and I also kill some of Sury's soldiers protecting workers in the fields. Angkor Thom also easily captured. So far so good.







1535AD: Suffering a lot of unhappiness due to canceled deals with Sury and Emancipation unhappiness... so I revolt to Free Market and Emancipation. I also make resource deals with Hannibal and Joao.





1540AD: Defences at Yasodharapura are strong so I wait for reinforcements.



1545AD: Banteay Kdei captured. Yamamoto is born, I will make him a super medic of course. Should've kept a horse archer around for this but he'll just have to be a cossack. Sury's willing to talk peace now but I want him gone completely.

1550AD: Attack on Yasodharapura begins. Will finish it off next turn.

1570AD: Capture Aryan. Still waiting on Yasod, the super medic is healing my stack. The city's reinforced now, though.



1575AD: Capture Yasodharapura. Yamamoto delivers the final blow to gain his 26th xp, he will get Leadership now. Also Michiel de Ruyter is born in Moscow. I happen to live on the street named after him in Amsterdam so I always like getting him as a GG. Sury's willing to capitulate. A Great Prophet was born in Yasodharapura on the turn of the attack and I considered delaying the capture until Sury does something with him, but decided against risking another reinforcement of the city.





1585AD: War weariness is getting crazy so I switch to Free Religion.

1595AD: Hariharalaya captured. Has the Islamic shrine with 17gpt at the moment.

1600AD: Sury vassals to Pacal, who promptly declares on me. I bribe Suleiman into the fun. Some of my coastal cities are still guarded by lone axemen so I upgrade them to riflemen, just in case.



1605AD: Jayendranagani captured with General de Ruyter now leading the stack as a second super medic. He is also given Leadership. Nagara Jayasari also captured on the other side of the Khmer Empire. Sury's down to 2 cities.



1615AD: An Ottoman city is captured by Pacal. Didn't see that one coming at all.

1620AD: Hmm, Sury's got a machine gun in this city. I promote a Cossack to Flanking II. He has less than 1% of killing it but 59% to withdraw. He kills the machine gun. The RNG can be kind sometimes, too. I do have to wait one more turn before I can finish off what's left of the defenders, though. Hernan Cortes is born, I send him to settle in Yakutsk.





1625AD: Rajavihara captured. Also had a MG, this time two Cossacks withdrew before it could be killed.

1630AD: Sury's got Riflemen in Angkor Wat now, but I take the risk with my injured stack and they are both killed (they were injured in the previous turn before they were even upgraded to riflemen). One cannon left, but I have no one to attack with.

1635AD: Angkor Wat is captured, Sury's gone.



I ended here. Pacal still won't talk to me but I'm sure we'll make peace soon enough. Here's the continent with a few reminder notes to myself:



I need to remember to stop building the Forbidden Palace in Angkor Thom, it'd be better some place further west. When I'm warring I don't have the patience to focus on anything else so I often just randomly choose stuff to build without taking a look at the city itself.

So, I settled in place. I got early archers because to be quite frank, after that deity rape I hate barbs more than ever. Other than that I just expanded, but slowly because 1) we block off land almost automatically 2) low commerce initially means too much expo will slow down important techs early and 3) I don't want to border press and take more chances with sury than I have to. Indeed, I even ran OR before I got his religion to get the civic bonus.

I didn't make it to the stone, but after having blocking power I went mids anyway and got them. Here I am in my low-city glory in 25 AD:



You'd think I'd lose with sloppy play like this, but no. Not so fast.

Since we're PHI and I got mids, the logical conclusion is...a cottage bureaucracy capitol . The triple food site and one of my southern cities cranked scientists in caste pretty well however! I bulbed philo first and put 1 into education. The rest were settled in b. capitol for some funtime.

I don't lose lib, yay for NOT being isolated on immortal!



Which leads to considerable brokering.

From there, I sink 1 bulb into physics while going steel/rifling, then communism. All cities except my cottage capitol are quickly converted into workshop gods. Thanks to the physics bulb, I decide to go with rifles (then infantry) and AIRSHIPS vs sury.

Here's the bait DoW:



His stack moves in:



And gets spanked by airships and eradicated by the rifles. I then start pushing into his land. It's a long war though, because he keeps spamming troops, gets mil sci annoyingly quickly, and then when he has 4 cities left RAILROAD?! What the hell? How? It's not like he could have traded it...was it gifted? The world may never know.

Or care.



I don't take capitulation because that would screw diplo. I knew I'd have a shot at UN before I even declared, thanks to religion distribution. I become #1 in pop, and once those UN stopwar defies wear off I eventually get SG.

Pacal built the UN. He's been going culture all game. He takes sury as a vassal voluntarily. He then makes demands on me and I tell him to shove it because I have more power.

The CULTURE WHORE actually DECLARES on me! I don't mind, except for the 800 WW with sury . That, and I got out of police state because i wanted the HR bonus with joao. Damn damn damn. Well, more culture slider then.

Despite all that and pacal's tech lead, I actually beat him back easily. I take a city, and garrison it with enough infantry to hold it. I was getting marines and was about to take all of his coastal cities (ending his culture attempt with his 3rd city at 35k), when the game ended. Of course, I knew it would...



That's right. I delayed taking mutal deliberately, to avoid running against Joao. How do I get the needed votes? HR, resources, fair trade, and even NSR OR. Haha!





Game over man!





Note: Joao was stronger than me, but I was stronger than everyone else except him. Basically, I'd need only to block pacal's culture and vassal Egypt before Joao launched his ship. Not a tall order. Once I did that, I could run a suicide marine run into lisbon if needed while going with mech infantry/MA from the south. But, not necessary. I planed the UN ahead from like...1300 AD or so.

I start by reviewing every city that I've been neglecting during the war and micro-managing it. I need some infrastructure, especially in Sury's old cities, and new workboats cause all of mine have been pillaged.

1640AD: Joao demands Liberalism, I give it to him and he goes to Pleased. Get a relations event with him, as well. UN victory starting to look plausible. I revolt to Free Speech cause I got lots of towns now.



1650AD: Pacal completes Apollo Program. Ack.

1660AD: Pacal and Suleiman make peace, I make peace with Pacal and he's back to Pleased so I open borders and trade resources, although now he's Suleiman's worst enemy.

1710AD: Suleiman has already completed Broadway and The Eiffel Tower and has researched Mass Media. I was hoping Pacal would build the UN, but even with Suleiman as my opponent I think it's winnable.

1725AD: UN vote comes up.

1730AD: I win UN chair. I'm teching Refrigeration and will use that to bribe Joao and Pacal into Hereditary Rule for the shared favorite civic bonus.



1750AD: I give Refrigeration to Joao to adopt Free Religion and HR, making him happier with me and not so happy with Suleiman anymore.



1755AD: Ramesses vassals to Suleiman who declares on Hannibal. Him building the UN ended up way better than Pacal. I'm waiting for Pacal to be able to revolt again (he adopted Environmentalism a few turns ago) so I can bribe him into HR. I try the dilpo vote this turn anyway.

1760AD: Close, but not quite there yet. I bribe Pacal into HR and he immediately goes to Friendly with a +5 for relations.



1775AD: Suleiman asks for Refrigeration, but I decline. Hannibal has been capturing cities from Ramesses which is good cause that's more votes he can give me, but this turn Suleiman takes a Carthaganian city, so I give him Refrigeration for peace with Hannibal. I need those votes!

1790AD: Victory.



Stats:



Score:




Really fun game and an unexpected win for me since this was the first time I've tried Immortal. I think a few things helped. Barbarians were mostly a non-issue since southern Russia was narrow and easily fogbust-able, and Sury took care of the rest of the island. The three gems really helped in the beginning, and Philosophical as well - I was keeping up in tech pretty easily, and way easier than a lot of my Emperor games. I'm not sure how Sury fell so behind in the medieval area; my Cossacks were fighting knights, longbows and macemen mostly.

I guess overall I don't feel as if I played particularly well to get the win. It seems more likely that the AI underperformed, which I find strange because the other continent were all Jewish buddies when I met them (aside from Ramesses), so wars didn't slow them down. Likewise with Pacal, Sury and I - we were all Buddhists. Maybe my expectations of Immortal were too high and it's not as scary as I thought it would be; but more likely I got lucky.

Thanks for the game PaulusIII.

From my first deity win to my first IU loss all in 2 days.

I took a chance and let a barb warrior attack Moscow at .02 chance of winning.

It won.

I'll give it another go. Definitely won't let Moscow fall this time.

Scout goes NW for hut, and then pushes SW until I meet surry and go SW until it dies to a panther. Huts are cash, cash, AH.

Tech was BW -> ag

Build order was worker -> warrior (partial to pop 2) -> worker (chop) -> settler (chop).

The plan had been to block settle against Surry (no other AIs made it up from the unexplored south and my warrior on a wooded hill died to a barb archer). I hate being alone with an AI like Surry, he REXes well, he gets good verticle expansion, and he is impossible to please without religion (which he is not the best at getting himself).

I was intending to try snag either the wheat/silk/silk spot or settle on the hill at silk/silk/silk; second block would come at wheat/stone/horses fish (exact location depending on if I could secure other wheat). However while finishing the settler I got the axe handle event (free shock for all axes).

I opt to roll the dice on a CR/Shock axe rush (superior to the agg rush, the vulture rush or the phalanx rush). Oddly enough, this means it is best for me for Suri to beeline IW and spam CI (CR/woody are even better) axes/swords and make fewer archers. He does not dissappoint and has masses of melee. Cap is clearcut except for a few flains forests (used as substandard mines earlier) and then whips out a lib to run specs (economy tanked with all the axes) I start teching math after getting the basic, minimal economy online. I'm hoping Surri gets Alphabet before the war is over. I start teching math in order to get higher chops (if I capture a choppable city) or get pults if I end up sitzkrieging his cap.

War goes fairly well; I get a lucky break on my first attack; something around 10% odds of making the attack and I pull through, gettin an insta high promoted axe, the other archers take down an axe each. I raze the city to the ground (cash concerns) and then smash a SoD on the open ground. After that, I head into surris cap, and take down 3 archers and an axe with heavy losses, but pull through.

I manage to catch one of suris workers with a woody II unit (stack defense who got some action) and kill all but one city when math is 1 turn away from completion. I opt to finish math, bulb alpha (surry was good about early IW, but bad about alphab) and extort him for all he's worth. Isolation on a large landmass with double caps (and surry built SH for me) sounds pretty good. I'll be huge and all the trade networks will head towards me.

Surry buys 10 turns of life for myst, pottery, masonry, IW, and fishing. Looks like a straight forward mass expand while teching down to astro with handy philo bulbs. Be huge, be backward, but get astro early for trade and overseas foreign trade.

After extoring my worker techs from Suri I meet Pacal. Timing could not be worse. The whole point of rushing Suri is to be alone so I can garrison everything with chariots, build no defenses, and expand in a slow fashion. Now, I'm going to have to expand to block Pacal from taking large amounts of "suri's" land quick and keep up my defenses, and still have no trade possibilities. Worse Pacal has his own religion (shrined ~400 AD) and some insane wonders (Parth, GLib, Oracle, GW, Colossus, and AP all seem rather good; at least I get AP hammers). I kill Suri 10 turns after he bought peace; bastard sent out a settler during that time and spammed archers on a hill.

Once Suri goes down I get settlers out and head north to block off Pacal. I nab the corn/fish location in the south, but fail at the sheep/Fe/Fish in the north by a turn. I should have burnt Suris last city and just rebuilt it in the same location later, but I was hoping to save ; unfortunately the need to work more to avoid striking cost me a turn off my settler.

I have the settler go settle the marble/Ag/Sheep hill as I need the Ag for happiness and I need to block Pacal. Buddhism takes forever to reach me so I can't go into OR and make Pacal pleased.

Techwise I've opted to go bottom path, Pacal is tech leader from the look of things and he's going solid middle path. Early astro might give me a monopoly tech to dig my way out this hole (and it is a duzzy). Barbs have settled the Pigs/wheat/horses slot so I get stone in between the hills with fish; mainly so I can bring Maori online faster in Suris penultimate city below the pigs WSW if his cap. I also found a city at the gems/gems/gems coastal location just to fund my economy.

Otherwise this is mainly a game of growing my cottages, making swords to take barb cities (while I settled an early GG in my cap, and Suri has one in my Maori city, I make Suri's cap my HE) for the cash and to keep Pacal from attacking, and of course slowing settling the vast expanses (very much a Russian game here). Around 1000 AD Pacal takes Lib, the guy is a beast and I hope the reason I haven't met any other AIs is that they are having wars (though GG spawn rate is low); I'm slowly working my way to optics.

Just before I finish optics I meet the AIs : Ottomans, Carthage and Egypt. Carthage is Jewish; the others are Hindu (Egpyt founded). Carthage and Egypt hate each others guts, but I'm able to get map swaps after Carthage gets circumnavigation. I tech calender while waiting on another GSc to spawn I had hoped to work out a trade for this, but I'm woefully behind. Just before I finish the needed GSc , Pacal completes Astro. I bulb it any ways and opt to sell it first to the Ottomans for everything they can give me (Med, Poly, Construction, HBR, Aesthetics, and Currency), I then trade it to Hannibal for CoL, Mono, Engineering, and Lit to Hannible.

I have pre built settlers waiting on hand down south; I also took out a barb city so I could settle at that desert hill SE of the pigs. A galleon is sent to make contact with Jao; he gets astro for the the low, low price of CS and Philo. I mass settle when Carthage shows up on my land with a settler.

Techwise, I'm screwed. I need PP, and Lib to get the economy rocking (cottages everywhere) and the AIs are running around out near Demo/Communism. I have enough land I will eventually pull up and overtake the laggards, but without a major war, I'm going to be stuck falling behind Pacal. I have two real shots here:
1. Diplomatic; Pacal has given me a nice Buddhist AP which I'm finally milking for ; if I expand heavily and can get one of the other AIs to like me I can game that for a win with mass missionaries; alternatively I can backstab him with missiles and marines (maybe nukes) and hold Mutal with all its wonders. Then use the UN/spies to get Pacal into FR and win an AP win off that (taking his cap in a war is going to lose me the friendly status, but I might be able to use civics and a few other tricks to him to vote for me). Otherwise its a UN game, Pacal is friendly, but most likely to build the UN himself. With Sushi I should be able to win UN with only one other AI.
2. Massively leveraged CorpE. I have many, many resources Sushi (and to a lesser extent mining/CivJ) will let me catch up economicly in time for space circa 1900. I have 4 religions in my borders so I could make a very good run at culture corps to victory.

Current plan is to beeline Medicine (which I might get as a monopoly tech if Pacal ignores it), try desperately for Sushi (I'm going to run caste with a super NP in the SE most city; 8 forest preserves + fish should give me a good shot at a GM, and see if I'm chasing space or the UN. Domination is an outside shot. I can handily best anyone but Pacal in the long term tech race; and even there I will win if things last long enough. I hate doing these things, but I might have to fight a raze expedition with Pacal. Just take down Mutal and pull ahead while he rebuilds.