All Leaders Challenge Game Strategy Session: Montezuma

[Good Sauce]

I've found artillary to be the bread and butter of any war. The las game I played I found myself with a minor tech advantage. up against some very well defended but pacifist civs. (18 civs on a small map, might not be the best example as I dont think the AI handles this so well) I had no metals and had been strugling with only archers. uppon getting construction I turned to "all cats - all the time" . i was amazed at how effective it was. cats build quicker than most metal based units, so you can amass a large stack of them. given city raider and barrage promotions, no city will last through an attack. Later in the game i had the same success with cannons.
the lesson: you can never have too much artillary. after learning that lesson my SoDs in any war are always 50% or more artiallary, sometimes 100%. food for thought when you go up against Qin
(this was on noble, things might be different on prince, im not that good a CIVer)

 

[The Tyrant]

I just remembered something that will speed up the conversion of Bismark's cities. When you reach the point where you can afford to start spamming missionaries, you don't have to send missionaries all the way to each city you want to convert. After he converts to your religion, all you have to do is send your missionaries across the sea and disembark on his territory. Then you can gift them to Bismark and he will send them about his territory, using them to spread the religion. This saves you several turns of movement and allows you to start building the next batch of missionaries even sooner.

To squeeze one more turn of speed out of this process, you can even gift the missionaries when they have no movement left. Once his turn begins, he gets full movement with the units. You could disembark inside a city, allowing a full turn of movement, gift the units at the end of their move and let him take over at the beginning of his turn, moving them again.

This works really well in pangea maps when you want to convert civs that you don't have open borders with. If one of your religious buddies has open borders with other civs who have closed their borders to you, just gift missionaries to your friend and he will spread the faith into those other lands. I've used that tactic many times to convert and befriend civs who would have liked me if it weren't for religious differences. Once they converted, relations became great.

Edit: And although I haven't done a rigorous test, it seems to me that the AIs have a *much* better chance of success with missionaries than the player does. Gifting missionaries seems to greatly increase the odds of success, meaning fewer missionaries you have to produce.

 

[Sisiutil]

(9th Round: to 1820 AD)

Excellent points, gang. I especially like the idea of having four cannons specialize with Accuracy promotions that only take out city defenses. I am going to try that, since I'm producing cannons like there's no tommorrow right now.

As I said, I declared war very quickly. I only waited two turns until the stack that had been just north of Tianjin split in two and the second half was near enough to Shandong to attack. Meanwhile, my buddy Bismark showed up, asking me to convert to Hinduism, of all things! I turned him down, but asked him what he wanted in order to convert to Confucianism:

Since I am shoring up Bismark as a bulwark to Alexander, I gladly gave him Military Tradition. This was, by the way, before my Galleon deposited its cargo of three Missionaries on his soil! It was all based on one lone Missionary I had sent to Germany in a Caravel just before acquiring Astronomy who spread the good word in one German city. That's the advantage of having all religions founded on your own continent, I suppose.

Just before attacking, just to be on the safe side, I took a quick look at the diplomacy advisor:

Look at that! Qin is "Friendly"! He's my friend! How can I turn on my only friend, my bosom buddy, my compadre, my amigo?

Hmmm, well, kind of like this:

(I know everybody likes to complain about naval units in Civ IV, but I don't care. They're still fun. Though the Aztec Empire's neon green sails aren't the most stylish I've ever seen. Kinda 80s, dontcha think?)

I took Tianjin pretty quickly, but Shandong took a little longer, mainly because it was deeper in Chinese territory. In addition to reinforcing it, Qin sent a stack to Moscow:

Now why oh why did I leave that pretty little grove of trees standing right outside the city so they could shelter my enemies? For the hammers? Sheesh. I can be such a bonehead sometimes; just ask my wife. First thing when the war is done, that grove gets chopped to build Forbidden Palace and replaced by a nice little workshop.

If you have a close look at the screen, you'll notice that Qin's stack is not much of a threat. Not only does he have too few units of sufficient power, not only is Moscow well-defended by much more modern and powerful units...check the reasearch bar at the top of the screen.

That's right; a couple of turns and a dip in the science slider later, Qin found himself facing City Garrison II Riflemen. Oh, and the stack that had razed Shandong the turn before, rumbling up on his rear. I should feel terribly guilty for taking out a rival with techically superior units, I really should.

But of course I don't.

Now, have a close look at Guangzhou:

Yes, thats' the Hanging Gardens and Chichen Itza. Both are obsolete, IIRC, but are Wonders nonetheless, so Guangzhou gets to live. As does the capital, naturally--which also has two obsolete Wonders, the Colossus and the Oracle. But hey, a Wonder's a Wonder.

Question: I know a captured Wonder stops contributing culture (which doesn't make a lot of sense to me, but okay); does it stop producing Great People points as well? I can't recall. I guess I'll find out soon enough...

I'm planning on keeping several of Qin's cities. I'll have to build Courthouses and FP to compensate, as well as spreading the good word of Confucianism, but the main reason is so many of the cities are coastal. The idea, you see, is to keep Alexander and even friend Bismark offa my continent.

Nevertheless, Alex does have that little outpost, Rhodes, down south. I'll have to keep an eye on him rushing Settlers to where I have razed Chinese cities, because I can't afford to keep them all. That's probably how I'll launch my war with him: by razing his cities on my continent. But Qin and then Ghandi come first.

The war is not done, but is progressing well. I have captured three Chinese cities and razed two others. A number of "obsolete" units--Macemen and even Axemen--have earned their next promotion (City Raider every time, since it's now scarce) and have been upgraded to either Grenadiers or Riflemen. I've only lost a couple of catapults, one Grenadier, and one cannon at this point--oh, and a handful of Cavalry. I got a few nasty reminders that Cavalry are still vulnerable to Pikemen. Darn.

Here's what the relevant portion of the map now looks like:

Check out Guangzhou's cultural influence! And what possessed Qin to put it there, with three resourceless desert tiles, when he could have moved it north a square for more arable land?

You don't suppose oil is gonna appear in one of those desert tiles, do ya? Naaaahh...the AI doesn't cheat like that!

I have two big Stacks o' Doom, one in the north (just captured Shanghai), and one in the south. The northern stack will capture Quangzhou next, while the southern one will probably raze those two tiny towns in the far south. I expect them to converge on either Xian or Macau (both of which I may have to keep to contain Alex).

Qin now has Gunpowder and I suspect is researching Chemistry, so I could see Grenadiers facing me before this war is done. And Ghandi just changed to the Emancipation civic, the little jerk, so I've got to keep an eye on war weariness and overall unhappiness. I don't have Constitution yet, but I plan on extorting it from the little Indian gentleman with the waggy finger, and a few other choce techs as well. All these things, of course, are just more reasons to move quickly.

Now check out this power chart!

Now THAT'S what I like to see! YEAH, baby!!

So, tommorrow, I suspect, the war will conclude. The research slider is back up, to 50%, though I occassionally push it down when and Axeman or Maceman reaches Level 5. I have quite a few L5 units now, most with several City Raider promotions. I can't wait to introduce Ghandi and Alex to them! I think a domination win is definitely within reach.

 

[vormuir]

What fun.

Inspired by your example, I spent a couple of days playing as Monte. ("A couple of days" = "one game", because I have children and a job and such. A job really cuts into gaming time, let me tell you.) Prince level. Didn't do as well as you have here, but killed two rivals (Huayna and the Khan), was the largest civ, and squeezed out a cultural victory in 1996 just a few turns before Roosevelt was ready to launch.

(Cultural victory: fun but nerve-wracking, because you can't make it happen faster. You have to stare at the screen every turn, watching the numbers slowly creep upwards, while your rivals are building starship parts like crazy. And the movie you get is soooo lame.)

But anyhow: your good example helped propel me to what was only my third Prince level victory (out of more than 20 attempts) and my first cultural. So, thanks for that!

Montezuma: attack, attack, attack! Stacks of mad Jaguars!

cheers,


Waldo

 

[pigswill]

Thinking about your game I'd say (again) be careful of Bismark. Your domination strategy is based on taking half the other continent. Up to now Biskmark and Alex have been roughly equal; if Bismark starts trading for military techs that could upset the balance. If Bismark wiped out Alex while you were taking out Gandhi it would get a lot trickier.
Also if Bismark traded Mil Trad to Qin or Gandhi (if they don't have it already) that would also make your life harder in the short term (having said that I haven't checked if they've got horses).
Quite often in Civ the question isn't:am I paranoid? the question is: am I paranoid enough?

 

[Fetch]

I just remembered something that will speed up the conversion of Bismark's cities. When you reach the point where you can afford to start spamming missionaries, you don't have to send missionaries all the way to each city you want to convert. After he converts to your religion, all you have to do is send your missionaries across the sea and disembark on his territory. Then you can gift them to Bismark and he will send them about his territory, using them to spread the religion. This saves you several turns of movement and allows you to start building the next batch of missionaries even sooner.

To squeeze one more turn of speed out of this process, you can even gift the missionaries when they have no movement left. Once his turn begins, he gets full movement with the units. You could disembark inside a city, allowing a full turn of movement, gift the units at the end of their move and let him take over at the beginning of his turn, moving them again.

This works really well in pangea maps when you want to convert civs that you don't have open borders with. If one of your religious buddies has open borders with other civs who have closed their borders to you, just gift missionaries to your friend and he will spread the faith into those other lands. I've used that tactic many times to convert and befriend civs who would have liked me if it weren't for religious differences. Once they converted, relations became great.

Edit: And although I haven't done a rigorous test, it seems to me that the AIs have a *much* better chance of success with missionaries than the player does. Gifting missionaries seems to greatly increase the odds of success, meaning fewer missionaries you have to produce.

Brilliant! I would have never thought of that.

 

[Fetch]

Ok, I'm stupid. What does IIRC mean?

 

[Sisiutil]

Fetch, IIRC = "If I Recall Correctly". Kind of a CYA rider to put into a statement. (Now waiting for the "What's CYA mean?" post.)

Pigswill, thanks for that reminder. I'll see if I can get Bismark to stop trading with Ghandi, and I'm going to slow down giving him military techs. I haven't traded him Chemistry or Steel, IIRC , and he won't be getting them from me. Cavalry I can deal with, now that I have Riflemen. Cannons and Grenadiers would be a pain.

But trust me, Bismark was SO far behind a few turns back--I've been lagging tech-wise all game, as I said, but I had nearly a dozen techs on him! Now he's at least a match defensively for Alex, and more importantly, Alex will think twice about attacking me since he has a much more potentially powerful enemy next door than he did just a few turns ago.

Something else occurred to me after I posted last night. Most of Qin's city's have had a VERY high defense rating; most have 85%. I've just been shrugging and putting it down to high cultural output--after all, he did build several wonders.

That's right. He did build several wonders.

Including...Chichen Itza.

+25% defense bonus in all cities.

And CI is still in effect, sitting there in Guangzhou.

D'OH!!

Here's an example of my Civ II veteranship coming into play. In that version of the game, if ANY civ on the map discovered a tech that obsoleted a Wonder, it got obsoleted, even if the civ with the wonder in question had not discovered that tech. In fact, if someone beat you to a wonder like the Great Library, you often bee-lined to the tech that made it obsolete to deny the posessing civ that advantage for too long.

But in Civ IV, I often forget that wonders remain in effect until the civ WITH the wonder discovers the obsoleting tech. (I suspect that other things--city walls, in particular--may be similar. Can anyone enlighten me? If I attack a city with gunpowder units, and that city has a wall, and its civ has not yet discovered gunpowder, is the wall's defense bonus in effect against my attackers or not? And if a tree falls in the forest with no one around to hear it...never mind.)

So Chichen Itza has been slowing me down. It takes longer to whittle down the city defenses, and my attacking units take more damage since, with such a clear offensive advantage (upgraded Grenadiers with City Raider promotions versus Longbowmen--puh-leeze), I haven't been bothering too much with pre-attack collateral damage up to this point. I should have made Guangzhou a much higher priority.

Certainly a mental note for any future game.

It certainly is a priority now; the healthy units in the stack in Shanghai are going after it next, and the southern stack is not going to attack a city until I've captured CI. Speed is of the essence. I have a significant advantage, but it won't last. I hope to keep it and use it on Ghandi, who is no doubt getting nervous and researching military techs as this war goes on next door.

Or maybe he isn't; but I'm not taking any chances. Speed, speed, speed! Notice I'm bee-lining to railroads. As soon as I have it, I'll be sending my safe, city-ensconced, sleeping workers out to build them everywhere. I'll post sentries to protect them if I have to, but to take two opponents out with my slight military tech lead at this point, I need to move fast. My casualties have been light, and I especially haven't lost any of those invaluable veteran foot units with their preserved City Raider promotions. I want to keep things that way.

 

[pigswill]

Chances are if you go for 4 Accurate Cannons per stack of doom Chichen Izza will be irrelevant ( Defence 125= 93,62,31,0).
Edit: what's CYA

 

[Sisiutil]

Chances are if you go for 4 Accurate Cannons per stack of doom Chichen Izza will be irrelevant ( Defence 125= 93,62,31,0).
Edit: what's CYA

Yes, you're probably right, but I'd like to have it out of the way nonetheless.

CYA = Cover Your A**

 

[Pomp]

I don't have anything constructive to add, I just wanted to thank you for starting the all leader challenge. This thread has been fun to read, not to mention educational. I just finished my own Monty game last night...I had to force myself to overcome my builder instincts and play to his warmongering strengths, which was a nice change from my normal games.

 

[jayseedubya]

I like what you're doing here. Could we get a cultural vic w/ someone like Saladin, Peter, or another leader? I've gotten one cultural vic on warlord, but never on anything higher. Your expertise would be appreciated in this walkthrough form.

 

[Thrar]

No real need for 4 cannons with accuracy btw, just use 5 without it. They still take off 20% of the target's defense, instead of 25%.
I'd suggest using that second promotion on city raider, too, then you have something you can use in your army. Having 4 cannons per stack just sitting around sounds like a waste to me...

 

[Sisiutil]

I like what you're doing here. Could we get a cultural vic w/ someone like Saladin, Peter, or another leader? I've gotten one cultural vic on warlord, but never on anything higher. Your expertise would be appreciated in this walkthrough form.

Thanks. I think any type of victory is possible with any leader. vormuir says, above, that he won a cultural victory with Monty. I could see it, especially if you grab a few religions. I, on the other hand, pretty much set out to play as a warmonger in this game from the very start. This is probably the first game I've played where I think I've spent more turns at war than not.

Once this game is over, I may do this again with one of the other leaders on my still-haven't-played-'em list, which is extensive. One of those may end up being a cultural victory. I usually like to see what map I'm on and who my neighbours are before going after it; my strategy for that victory requires me to be a pretty peaceful builder. That's tough if I find myself on a continent with the usual psychos (Toku, Monty, Alex, Napoleon, Isabella...)

 

[Sisiutil]

No real need for 4 cannons with accuracy btw, just use 5 without it. They still take off 20% of the target's defense, instead of 25%.
I'd suggest using that second promotion on city raider, too, then you have something you can use in your army. Having 4 cannons per stack just sitting around sounds like a waste to me...

I don't think they'd be sitting around. I'd group them with 1-2 strong defensive units and send them through forests and over hills to the next city while I finish capturing and reinforcing the one they've weakened. That way the city's defenses would be gone by the time the stack gets there. It sounds like a very efficient way to run a war. I will probably attempt to give it a try in this game.

 

[The Tyrant]

That way the city's defenses would be gone by the time the stack gets there.

Well, since they take the city defenses to zero in one turn, you don't have to have them advance in front of your stack. If they approach with the stack, they barrage at the beginning of the turn and *poof* no defenses left, stack attacks. If you always assign city raider to every seige unit, then Thrar's method would be better -- it would give more flexibility when you need it. I prefer to fully specialize my seige units, though, so using four per stack for taking down defenses is better for my play style.

The reason I assign four accuracy-promoted to nothing but taking city defenses is because I don't assign city raider promotions to my other seige units. I always max the others' collateral damage promotions so they can be useful in shredding stacks outside cities as well. I view always assigning city raider as wasteful since I do a fair amount of stack fighting outside of cities. Why go into combat knowing that in a fair percentage of battles I'll be attacking with a wasted promotion? It's all a matter of personal preference, but I prefer to specialize my units.

 

[The Tyrant]

Look at that! Qin is "Friendly"! He's my friend! How can I turn on my only friend, my bosom buddy, my compadre, my amigo?

Hmmm, well, kind of like this:

LOL! I love your writing style. A solid grasp of strategy, tactics and game mechanics is necessary for a thread like this, but good story telling brings it alive.

The war looks like it is going well. That power graph looks great. Forbidden Palace will definitely be a necessity. Probably both Gandhi and Alex will try to slip some settlers into the gaps created, but that's okay. When you're done with Qin, do you plan to go straight after Gandhi? Versailles would help offset the upkeep for the Indian cities, but capturing even more cities at this point would drive the upkeep for Qin's cities through the roof. Just wondering if it might be time for a short rebuilding phase after taking Qin?

 

[Sisiutil]

(10th Round: to 1896 AD)

To quickly answer Tyrant's question, yes, there was a rebuilding period after the war with Qin. Very necessary, as you'll see. It isn't quite over. The rebuilding period, I mean. (And thanks for the compliment.)

To make a long story short, the war with Qin went on, paused briefly, then concluded. The Grenadiers, by the way, were awesome against the Riflemen Qin now had, especially with those City Raider promotions preserved from their earlier incarnations.

I always like to see what I can get in the middle of a war, especially when most of my units are injured, captured cities are in rebellion, and I could use 10 turns to catch my breath:

Not quite as sweet as what Hatty offered me way back when, but still good enough to buy a breather. With the slider down to 40%, Economics and 260 gold seemed like a good deal. (Qin's initial refusal, by the way, was in response to my demanding Constitution as well.)

Of course, ten turns later, we were right back at it, and this time I didn't stop until the fat lady sang:

I kept several of the cities and finally built Forbidden Palace in Moscow, which helped immensely. Then I began some rebuilding. I was quite satisfied with the way things stood at this point:

Impressive, no? I love being on top of the power graph like that. But wait a moment--is that the 90-pound-weakling, Ghandi, sneaking up the power chart? It is indeed. I should have noticed it at the time, but I got preoccupied with recovering from the war.

Without the benefit of the Financial trait, and with fighting so many wars, I am finding it hard to keep up in tech unless I trade. I held off as long as I could, but Alexander and Ghandi were both outpacing me, so I had no choice but to make a few trades with Bismark. One of the first was for Scientific Method. Turns out I have two sources of oil:

...neither of which I would have had if I had not gone to war. The first would have either belonged to Hatty or Peter, the second to Qin.

Speaking of my buddy Bismark, look what he wound up doing:

Copper AND oil. Seems ol' Peter wasn't such a dunce after all. Maybe I should kept one of those cities on that desert hill. I'm not sure what to do about this one, since I'm trying to keep Bizzy on my side.

Ghandi also started pressing his luck:

"Our close borders cause tensions." No kidding, pal. I know all the AI civs do this, but in every game I play against him, I swear Ghandi is the absolute worst for putting a city right in your face like that. I mean it, the worst. I love killing the guy. And I grew up with him being one of my greatest heroes.

You'll noticed I bee-lined to Assembly Line. With a Great Engineer hanging around, waiting for a wonder, and me playing like a warmonger, you can guess why:

Good thing too. I had to get Liberalism from Bismark so I could switch to Free Speech and Free Religion for the monetary and tech boost. I don't know if I'll really be able to switch back to Vasselage and Theocracy and still keep up.

And now I'm in a bit of a quandry. It appears as though Ghandi watched me taking out the second of our mutual neighbours and took the not-so-subtle hint. He pursued military techs while I was busy with Qin. He discovered Artillery and Rocketry, so he is now starting to build the former, and SAM Infantry too. This is, of course, a very typical research path for the AI, so I'm not surprised. But check out what happened to the power chart!

Seems the 90 pound weakling took to the Charles Atlas program big time. I can only see two of Ghandi's cities, and they're lightly defended; one has 1 SAM, 1 Rifleman, and one Longbow; the other has 1 Cavalry, 1 Artillery, and 1 Rifleman. But based on the graph, I'd say he's hiding the bulk of his forces in the cities I have no knowledge of. (He won't sign Open Borders. "Perhaps in a few years".)

Oh, and to top it all off, he has Communism, has built Scotland Yard, and has already committed an act of sabotage on one of my iron mines. No big, but my two oil wells will be vulnerable. I have never successfully prevented the AI from committing an act of sabotage, no matter how many units I stack on a resource. At least I have two, and the AI, I've noticed, often gets focussed on sabotaging one resource and sometimes leaves the other alone. I'll keep my fingers crossed, a couple of units stationed on each well, and a couple of workers in the nearest city on stand-by.

Anyway, at this point I'm second-guessing myself a bit; perhaps I should have gone after Ghandi rather than Qin. Though I suspect if I had, I would now be looking at a more modern and stronger Qin and shuddering instead.

Other factors at work: Bismark and Alex are now at war. I'm expecting Bizzy to show up any turn now and ask for me to join him. I'm tempted, because what I'd do, of course, is kick Alex to heck offa my continent. I might keep those two crappy Greek cities on the tundra, though, just to prevent Bizzy for moving in.

However, warring on Alex at this point would, I suspect, be a distraction from what needs to be my main target: Ghandi. He's a threat now. I don't think I can delay going after him much longer.

But how to do so? I'm building factories in almost every city right now; soon I'll be able to pump out Infantry like there's no tommorrow. I don't have a lot of gold to upgrade my existing units, though, and those veterans with their city raider promotions are going to be vital. Once I get the techs I want--Industrialism and Artillery--the slider will probably plunge to 0% for awhile to fund upgrades.

Physics is a pre-req for both Artillery and for Industrialism. I'm six turns away from it. Ghandi will, apparently, trade for it, but I'd have to give him combustion or Assembly Line, neither of which he has. And there ain't no way that's going to happen. Alexander doesn't like me since I'm cozying up to Bizzy, so no hope there, and Bizzy doesn't have it:

I'll just have to buckle down and get it on my own. Once I have it, which way should I go: Artillery first, or Industrialism for Marines and Tanks? I'm thinking the latter and use cannons until I next get Artillery.

Here's what the map looks like.

Novgorod, you'll notice, is still very vulnerable. And I have to protect Moscow now that it has FP. When I attack, I think I have to do it fast, strike a crippling blow, and prepare for a more significant counter-attack than I've faced thus far. Chittagong is a distraction at this point, and even Jaipur is lightly defended. I could probably take them both out quickly, especially since my borders press up very close to them.

But what I'm thinking my first, principal objective should be is to drive straight out from Novgorod into the Indian heartland and take Madras. Ghandi has built several desirable Wonders, including the Statue of Liberty and the Kremlin; if any wonders are there, I will have to try to keep Madras. Otherwise, despite its size, I will raze it and retreat.

The main advantage I have--besides being better at military strategy than the AI--is greater industrial capacity. If I can take out one of Ghandi's biggest cities and perhaps two of his smaller ones that are too close for comfort, I could set him back substantially. Then it's just a matter of absorbing any counter-attack and overwhelming him with numbers.

And tanks. I really like tanks.

I also have several Frigates that can sail down the west coast and plunder any ocean resources as well as bombarding all those coastal cities. I should be able to upgrade them to Destroyers soon and/or produce several of the latter as well. Thebes has a drydock, as does Cancun.

So...thoughts? How should I proceed here? Which techs to pursue, in what order? And how to take on the dual threat of SAM infantry and Artillery? Should I wait for tanks, or attack now before Ghandi builds his forces futher? If Bismark asks me to join in against Alex, what should my response be?

 

[stuge]

If industrailism isn't far away, I think you should aim for marines, to smash artillery, and for tanks, to smash everything else. And go after Gandhi quick. The reason being, it's already the 19th century and claiming Alex's lands for domination won't be done in 50 years. (Or maybe it will, not enough experience from warmongering.)

If you're afraid of Gandhi hiding his armies in the southern cities, send a big stack to Novgorod to A) take out Chittagong and B) to tackle any suckers who might try to disgrace the Aztec soil. Stationing infantry units on hills or any other defensible ground along the border should help to keep the pillaging in minimum.

If Biz ask your help in giving Alex the stick, go for it. It won't take tremendous effort to burn those southern outposts and to sink (literally) the counter-attack. Especially if you have destroyers.

 

[The Tyrant]

Tanks. Definitely tanks. They will be more useful than upgrading to artillery, have a faster move and will be able to better withstand the onslaught that Gandhi will send at your approaching stacks.

I've noticed that each AI not only has a distinct personality, but seems to have a distinct fighting style also. Gandhi is one who has never hesitated to try to kill my stacks before they reach his cities. With that in mind I make sure the stacks are heavy on defensive units so they can absorb the damage, letting Gandhi suicide most of his better units against my stacks. By the time I slog through his borders and reach his cities, the city defenses are fairly weak compared to the attacking stack. Tanks will definitely help here.

I think you were right to take out Qin first. I shudder to think what his military would have looked like with the cheap upgrades the AIs get. At least Gandhi had to build most of his new strength from scratch. I'm also thinking that a good chunk of that new power rating could be in the form of a navy which you won't have to fight.

Relations with Bismark are probably good enough that you could take a hit or two from not helping with his war. Since you've completely eliminated all three previous opponents you won't have to worry about carry-over war weariness. If you do decide to help Bismark, that will be a ten-turn accrual of war weariness, but that will have to happen sooner or later anyway. The only thing is that if you do it now you might prefer to keep the relatively worthless/expensive cities instead of leaving a gap for Gandhi to fill. Not all that helpful when you're trying to build your economy. If you wait until after taking out Gandhi, you could raze those cities instead.

It looks like you have one of those necessary infrastructure phases ahead of you. How long you take will really depend on how much of a threat you think Gandhi may be, and that will require more intel. Using a caravel to scout his coast (ignores closed borders without causing war) will let you see the defenses in several cities and give you an idea of his overall real strength. Just remember, if Gandhi has a good navy, then your coastal cities should be beefed up as border cities, even if they are north of where the land battles will take place.