Final summary:
Well, only 2 players made it through to a domination victory:
Mutineer and Giaur
3 other players surrendered to the sheer amount of enemy units faced on their way to domination: Shyuhe, Dirk (who is launching a final try tonight) and Snaaty (me)
Lilnev had to drop out of the game, because his computer gave up
Well, in the end, the strategy of invading the bigger conti as early as possible to get a solid grip there an some vassals (=conquer the weaker nations first) proved to be the one that worked out best (shown by Mutineer and Giaur). Both players managed to take out Cyrus in the end, after facing huge number of enemies.
Mutineers game is very impressing, because he managed to battle his way through 500+ enemy units on his way to victory, after he had drawn the worst luck in midgame:
He had to face rifles when attacking Monty BEFORE 1600 AD and therefore had a quite difficult first war and a difficult position to gear up for endgame. Still he had proven that with the right tactics, the computer can be brought down, even when the odds are clearly against you.
To do so, Mutineer attacked in two waves:
In the first wave, he weakened Cyrus while he was a little backwards in tech by using his own vassals and by waiting for Cyrus initial attack at strategically good spots. He sued for peace and finished Cyrus in the second attack, when he had finally outteched Cyrus with modern troops.
Giaurs game was also impressive, but in a different way:
Since he had to face only about half of the troops that Mutineer had to face, he managed to bring Cyrus down in one go. What is most impressive in his game is the fact that he managed to take out 2/3 of Cyrus army within 10 turns. The power drop that he showed in his game concerning Cyrus overall power is the steepest I have ever seen when using conventional warfare (no nukes).
Giaur has also proven enormous skill in warfare by showing a very efficient way to lead an endgame war. He managed to take out about 250 units in less then 10 turns without loosing much units of his own.
So his troop combination may have been close to ideal when it comes to leading an endgame war:
Stated by Giaur in responce to my question concerning this:
My army was balanced. Armours, Gunships, Marines, Mech-Infantry - 1 : 1 : 1 : 1
...
I wont go more in detail with this summary, because all players have posted very good and detailed reports concerning their endgame war. Everybody feel free to read them through and to have a look at their saves
It´s definitely worth it