Critical Juncture: Where to go from here?

[Buccaneer]

In my current game, I am at a critical juncture and would like some general advice on what to do next. The game is on a small-sized Small Continents map, on Emperor playing as Persia, standard speed and 6 AI civs.

I am on a small continent with China and Ottoman, plus three city-states. China was beated down early and Beijing became my third city. They are small and insignificant. I just "finished" a war with the Ottomans, puppeting their four largest cities and razing another. They have 3 cities left on my continent in the northeastern extremes, plus a couple of small island cities. A peace won't get me much from them.

Just to the south of my continent lies another small continent. All 5 formerly Egyptian cities are puppeted and they are gone from the game.

On another continent (continents?) are the other 3 civs: Japan, Russia and Iroquois. Russia appears aggressive in going after city-states, including the 4 that I have.

Japan, Russia and I have nearly identical scores at turn 203, 1430ad. However, a look at the Demographics shows me behind them in every single category. I believe that I am ahead of them in SP (my 9 to their 5/6). Russia has 5x more population and Japan has 10% more techs.

I have a reasonable large force of (6) Cavs and (6) Rifles but I do not know what they have, except they are bigger. My tech rate is over 100/t and have no happiness problems. My culture is over 70/t. I am about to get Astronomy.

I know this is sketchy but shall I:
1. Finish off the Ottomans (or nearly so)? Or peace?
2. Go find and scout Japan and Russia?
3. Try to take on Iroquois?
4. Leave them alone and work on teching/building?
5. Try for culture victory?
6. Domination? If so, do I do it now?
7. With more GA=$$, I could find the rest of the city-states and go for diplomacy?

 

[AntiLegend]

first of all, why don't you have any siege weapons? isn't it really costly to take cities without them?

anyways, if i play on continents maps and have cleared my continent, i usually crank out a couple of additional workers to improve my lands asap and if there are some good unsettled spots left, settle them. also getting in contact with the other civs is a top priority to get RAs going, and to be able to bribe the other continent into warring each other.

in most cases i end up being too lazy to invade and just build the space ship, but sometimes if the enemy capitals are easily accessable (e.g. coastal), i try to win domination. i usually won't start an invasion before i have artillery, and lately i even postpone invasions until i have bombers, just because i like using them

regarding your questions:

1. Finish off the Ottomans (or nearly so)? Or peace?

unless they have large amounts of cash on hand, which you could get for peace, i'd just crush them. that way your troops at least gain some more exp

2. Go find and scout Japan and Russia?

yes, at least get contact for research agreements and to be able to bribe them into fighting

3. Try to take on Iroquois?

hard to say without knowing what kinds of units they have, but i'd say your resources are better used by improving your land and your cities

4. Leave them alone and work on teching/building?

yes, just interact via diplomacy

5. Try for culture victory?

boring imho

6. Domination? If so, do I do it now?

are you in a hurry?

7. With more GA=$$, I could find the rest of the city-states and go for diplomacy?

imho even more boring than culture

 

[trueblue]

unless they have large amounts of cash on hand, which you could get for peace, i'd just crush them. that way your troops at least gain some more exp

and if you had siege then all the better.

 

[Buccaneer]

I did have a couple of cannons, forgot to mention that, sorry. Well, I waited a bit, explored where everybody else was, as well as the remaining city states. I upgraded the cannons to artillery and my 3 Frigates to Destroyers and started after the big Iroquois cities. Tough going but successful in taking four cities including their capital. But I left the Egyptian cities undefended (my soft underbelly). Japan and Russia are well into the Modern Era right now and I'm doomed to a third place finish no matter which way I went.

 

[Buccaneer]

Ok, here's the latest junction, much later in the game. Japan and Russia still dominate all of the demographics. They reached the Modern Era in mid-1600s and Future Era in early 1800s. I did go after the Iroquois, taking their four largest cities but that was all I was going to do militarily. With the Russian and Japanese so far ahead, all I could do was work on the two things I knew I could do: culture and city-states, while waiting for one of them to win.

But now it is late 1800s and doing well on social policies and even got 9 of the 12 city-states, thanks to abundant gold and golden ages (and Cristo, which miraculously I built). Russia was going after the city-states but not any more. So I have no idea of what they are trying to do now.

Apparently, they may thinking that I would come after their capitals. With one of the best things to come out of the Dec patch, they're both sheltering their capitals very well: ultra-defenses and surrounded with superb military units (rocket launchers and stuff). I knew I never had any chance, so I never thought about it. What do you think they are trying do, victory-wise?

 

[vanjito]

If you are so behind in tech save some money and go for Diplo...

 

[Buccaneer]

Which was what happened. Russia built the UN but they did not reduce my alliances. I won 8 turns later.

I really wish the AI would try harder and be more focused on winning. That's all that matters.