I must admit I still haven't *quite* cracked this strategy, and I actually still don't have a deity/domination victory under my belt.
The closest I have are multiple later rushs, where I have been winning just before the AI builds the space ship (late, I know) but starting with artillery or even great war bombers, you can't really start quick.
Then some 5-6 turns before I can take the last capital, somewhere, the space ship emerges..
All the early CB rush games I have done (and I've done many) end up stalling at some point.
My biggest issue is how to catch up in tech while warring constantly..
*Do you still use trade routes for science when playing like this? It seems I can't produce enough beakers to get to Machinery early enough without those caravan beakers. And those are unreliable since you don't get to choose your neighbours and their city locations. If the AIs did send you multiple caravans at the very beginning, that would help immensenly. But often they don't.
So I'm wondering if your beaker production is all down to the population of your captured cities? (Since you can't depend on trade routes always working in your favor)
Composites at T55, NC done at 80-85 and I can't see how I could get to machinery before T100 without trade routes or +10 captured city population, which would of course, be a happiness issue too, at the time.
Also it's highly irregular what your first opponents have/do in the early game. If the first capital has 35 defense before T100, that's gonna be tough, at least for me. You'd need catapults honestly, but they take too much time to build, and are quite easily killed.
I had a good run the other day, where I was able to clear the first opposing civ by T80, but the next, Greece, had Pikes and Knights at T90 (could nicely insta-kill my composites) and then Crossbows also before T100, while I couldn't get beakers or gold anywhere in order to go Crossbows myself.
So I guess this time my big questions are how do you reliably get your early beakers and how do you deal with an early runaway civ who techs the military side of tech tree and all unit types have +1 tech level on you, 3x the numbers on you...
Also, about spies. When you first get your spiy/speis. Why is it that on some games your stealing speed against any of the AIs is immediately +20 Turns? And on some games you can find two or three civs from whom you can steal in less than 10 turns per tech to begin with? On some games I can't find any AI I could steal from in less than 25 turns, and that's just too much irregularity for my taste..
Re: caravans. I always play liberty and forward settle my free settler, so that either my expo or capital is next to an enemy, and the other is next to a chosen "friend". This way I can quickly attack an enemy at Construction and get trade routes to a friend. I can't emphasize enough how much this helps. Choose wisely who you choose as the friend. Pacal will send trade routes. Germany will send troops. Of course, he'd do that if he were halfway across the globe.
Re: spies. Theft rate is a measure of 2 factors. (oversimplified)
1) beakers/turn in the city you chose
2) presence of spies/constabulary/etc.
I usually look at the scoreboard and pick the AI with the highest technology score, lowest num-cities score, and highest capital population. Also, look for Great Library, hanging gardens, etc. in the diplomacy window. You want a BIG capital with a high tech rate. Attila might be #1 in tech but it's divided among 20 cities.
Re: Machinery by t100.
1) I don't capture until roughly t80-t90. 5%/city really hurts.
2) I rush NC. I chop it out and aim for t65 if possible.
3) I ally cultural CS to complete Liberty by t75 if possible. Bulbing a GS to finish Machinery is the bomb. For Continents, I plant that GS. With NC this makes a HUGE difference. *IF* you bulb, wait 8 turns after planting NC to bulb, at least. I usually wait until the bulb would finish Machinery to do it. I've hit Machinery on t90 this way. For Continents, this is overkill IMHO, but the sooner you can plant that academy the better. Cultural CS allies ftw!
Re: High defense capitals. Your XBs are most effective right after they upgrade. I try to time my captures based on city strength and unit strength. Right after I get Machinery, that's when you take the big city. Regarding the Great Wall, well, I usually wait until I have range, unless it's in a city with narrow cultural boundaries. GW sucks... This is a luck factor. But on Continents, 50% chance is that it's on the other continent, and GW doesn't affect Frigates.
Worker-stealing and harrassment is also important, as is the Pyramids, and I also utilize decoys to soften AI defenses. Cities with a garrison are harder to take. Leave a worker in range of your units, and they'll send a unit out to capture it. Nuke that unit, recapture the worker, and repeat until they're out of units.