So, ironically (given another thread where I was defending the value of taking the Range promotion first) I decided to take the Logistics promotion first. As a result, I struggled to make any progress against Monte. I should have taken my own advice, namely: If you're facing the Great Wall, take Range first.
His Knights and XBows (he got them *early*) were picking my front-line units apart. I had to basically surround the capital, moving my troops one-tile per turn, in order to decimate his troops enough that I could soak damage. I lost one of my logistics XBows immediately before I regrouped and changed tactics. All this slowed me down enough that I wasn't able to steamroll Maria before Artillery.
So, pre-Artillery I only managed to capture Kyoto, Edinburgh and Tenochtitlan. Kyoto fell *way easier than Tenochtitlan, despite Japan having more units and higher technology. Partly it was the GW and partly it was Monte having insane production from Petra. Without the Great Wall in the way, and with hills I could fight from, and now finally having Range, my XBows owned Japan's units.
Currently, on turn 165, I have 3 armies: Outside Indonesia's borders, I have 3 artillery, 2 cavalry, 2 landsknecht and two cover 2 musketmen, with only one city between me and the capital. I have the exact same army at Lisbon's borders, ready to attack Maria. I should have two more capitals by t175. Leaving me only with Delhi and Ethiopia's original capital. I'm spamming unit production as fast as I can, using Mercantilism to spawn 160g landsknecht, and using production to build more artillery/musketmen. I should have rifling soon, which should help punch through the last defenses.
Unfortunately, I'll have to slog my way through Japan's ICS sprawl to get to Addis Ababa, because when I captured Kyoto, Japan automatically moved his capital there. I'm not sure how I'm going to manage that much unhappiness. It'd be fine if I wasn't simultaneously attacking two other civs, but I could easily be capturing 3 cities in the space of a few turns.
If I was smart, I would have gotten Addis Ababa in a peace deal when I had Kyoto down to zero health, and then ten turns later annexed it and spammed landsknecht to defend it. That would have left Kyoto an easy target. This was perhaps my biggest tactical error. My current plan is to try to get the cities between me and Addis Ababa in a peace deal, which should get me there faster than capturing them, because that army is all XBows, and Japan just got Rifling. The artillery are about ten turns away because fricking Boudicca built a city on top of my road to Japan when they were making their pilgrimage to Mt Kilimanjaro.
So, I now have 4 capitals including my own, with 4 to go. I believe I can still finish before t200 if all goes well.
I'll post a SS when I get home.
Important lesson learned: When capturing your first capital with CBs, choose your upgrades based on what you'll be facing as your second capital. I could easily have shaved ten turns off my victory by taking Ranged first. There were hills I could have used to attack Monte's units from outside the Great Wall. Instead I had to slowly surround him by walking through the Great Wall. That would have meant capturing Maria's capital by t150, leaving me only 3 targets, and more importantly, I would have been able to chew through more of Japan.