Well, if anybody is curious, here's sort of walkthrough of one of my deity games. "Play now!" settings standard-sized archipelago, Washington. That's the start I've posted in http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=149822. So if anybody want to try it first, don't read any further.
I've also attached few saves from various phases.
The start was sort of awkward. The home island was ok, and there's another land in sight, but that land was just a small island with no access any further. On the west is Tokugawa who wouldn't give open borders, so the initial expansion was limited to a capital and another city.
That made it hard, because everything (Great Lighthouse, units, ships) has to be built in the capital. I've built cultural bridge from the second city to the east, but it only opened access to a serie of 1-2 tile islands without access any further. I've built 3rd city on the best of them and started preparing for the wars. My neighbours in the local cluster were Tokugawa and Incas, and Incas weren't doing that well. After Tokugawa has finally opened his borders, I've discovered that Incas only had 2 cities on mediocre islands. Until the last moment I stayed very friendly with both neighbours, and then I've attacked Incas (mostly with catapults). Quickly conquering them I've ended up with 5 cities, somewhat far apart. Tokugawa isn't an easiest neighbour to deal with, but I didn't really have a force to take him, so I had to live with it for a while.
The situation wasn't that good, because I still didn't have Iron and Tokugawa kept building up forces which was preventing me from taking his Iron over.
As the optics has been discovered, I've learned that Chinese were on a cluster of a small island north-east from me. Cyrus was an overall leader, and Catherine was in game too (and she is famous for her early starships). Without Iron I didn't have much choice but to go for Chinese who didn't have Iron either. I didn't risk going for their homeland, but just took couple of island cities (still with catapults). I've beelined for Steel, then switched to 0% science to accumulate few thousands of gold for upgrades. Finally I've purchased Iron from Cyrus for something like 250 gold per turn, upgraded my catapults and declared war on Cyrus. Usually I prefer to wait until my ships are in position, but that Iron was just way too expensive. I've quickly conquered couple of his cities and finally gained Iron (that was the main goal of this war). I still had bad relationship with Chinese (apparently, they couldn't forgive me my invasion), and now I had bad relations with Cyrus as well. With nothing better to do I've attacked Cyrus again (after short period of peace) and took all his colonies (cities off his mainland).
By now I was getting really concerned about Catherine. She was way ahead in tech and the score leader as well. By now she, Montezuma and Tokugawa were already building their spaceships. To make things worse she had defensive pact with Tokugawa and having the same religion as Aztecs she was on fine terms with them as well. I didn't fancy fighting all 4 of leading AIs at the same time. With nothing better to do I had made defensive pact with Tokugawa as well which was very fortunate, because soon Chinese has declared war on me and they had better navy. I couldn't really afford to spend time dealing with Chinese when I needed to do something about Russians. So I let Tokugawa fight sea war vs Chinese (which he was winning) and as soon as Catherine's pact with Tokugawa has expired I've attacked Russians. In 2 wars conducted in quick succession I've taken most of their cities including their home island (I was afraid to leave it to them, because of their spaceship pace).
At that stage the game was mostly decided, because without Catherine's research, Tokugawa and Montezuma couldn't get their spaceships fast. Soon I've attacked first Montezuma taking most of his cities, and then I've repeated the same with Tokugawa. By that time I got sloppy, allowed Tokugawa to retake some of his cities back temporarily, then I've nearly lost my capital to unexpected drop-in from Tokugawa (luckily, I had some loaded transport within sailing distance). At that stage, with everybody nearly demolished, I had just made peace and eventually won space victory.
I've also attached few saves from various phases.
The start was sort of awkward. The home island was ok, and there's another land in sight, but that land was just a small island with no access any further. On the west is Tokugawa who wouldn't give open borders, so the initial expansion was limited to a capital and another city.
That made it hard, because everything (Great Lighthouse, units, ships) has to be built in the capital. I've built cultural bridge from the second city to the east, but it only opened access to a serie of 1-2 tile islands without access any further. I've built 3rd city on the best of them and started preparing for the wars. My neighbours in the local cluster were Tokugawa and Incas, and Incas weren't doing that well. After Tokugawa has finally opened his borders, I've discovered that Incas only had 2 cities on mediocre islands. Until the last moment I stayed very friendly with both neighbours, and then I've attacked Incas (mostly with catapults). Quickly conquering them I've ended up with 5 cities, somewhat far apart. Tokugawa isn't an easiest neighbour to deal with, but I didn't really have a force to take him, so I had to live with it for a while.
The situation wasn't that good, because I still didn't have Iron and Tokugawa kept building up forces which was preventing me from taking his Iron over.
As the optics has been discovered, I've learned that Chinese were on a cluster of a small island north-east from me. Cyrus was an overall leader, and Catherine was in game too (and she is famous for her early starships). Without Iron I didn't have much choice but to go for Chinese who didn't have Iron either. I didn't risk going for their homeland, but just took couple of island cities (still with catapults). I've beelined for Steel, then switched to 0% science to accumulate few thousands of gold for upgrades. Finally I've purchased Iron from Cyrus for something like 250 gold per turn, upgraded my catapults and declared war on Cyrus. Usually I prefer to wait until my ships are in position, but that Iron was just way too expensive. I've quickly conquered couple of his cities and finally gained Iron (that was the main goal of this war). I still had bad relationship with Chinese (apparently, they couldn't forgive me my invasion), and now I had bad relations with Cyrus as well. With nothing better to do I've attacked Cyrus again (after short period of peace) and took all his colonies (cities off his mainland).
By now I was getting really concerned about Catherine. She was way ahead in tech and the score leader as well. By now she, Montezuma and Tokugawa were already building their spaceships. To make things worse she had defensive pact with Tokugawa and having the same religion as Aztecs she was on fine terms with them as well. I didn't fancy fighting all 4 of leading AIs at the same time. With nothing better to do I had made defensive pact with Tokugawa as well which was very fortunate, because soon Chinese has declared war on me and they had better navy. I couldn't really afford to spend time dealing with Chinese when I needed to do something about Russians. So I let Tokugawa fight sea war vs Chinese (which he was winning) and as soon as Catherine's pact with Tokugawa has expired I've attacked Russians. In 2 wars conducted in quick succession I've taken most of their cities including their home island (I was afraid to leave it to them, because of their spaceship pace).
At that stage the game was mostly decided, because without Catherine's research, Tokugawa and Montezuma couldn't get their spaceships fast. Soon I've attacked first Montezuma taking most of his cities, and then I've repeated the same with Tokugawa. By that time I got sloppy, allowed Tokugawa to retake some of his cities back temporarily, then I've nearly lost my capital to unexpected drop-in from Tokugawa (luckily, I had some loaded transport within sailing distance). At that stage, with everybody nearly demolished, I had just made peace and eventually won space victory.
