I just wanted to drop by and say thank you for this guide. I have been winning pretty reliably on Emporer but struggling to make the step up to Immortal/Deity - my only wins on those difficulties were turtling Science/Cultural victories. Most other games I found myself rushed early on as I tried to build my infrastructure. I was at a loss as to how to protect myself from warmongerers, thinking that I was safest trying to be peaceful early on. Inviting an early war seemed counterintuitive. This guide made me realise that to protect myself from warmongerers, I had to become the warmongerer.
I started a new game as China, Epic speed, standard size Continents. I found a capital in what I later discover is the south-west of our continent, and shortly meeting Poland to my north. I ignore all my instincts and declare war straight away. I have gotten a few Archers out already, having stopped myself from building the usual buildings I might, and send them to support my Warrior, who is on worker-stealing duty. I steal two workers and a settler, and protect the land I want to settle for myself. I make no effort to get near their capital, just steal their civilians, maybe occasionally pillage, just being a nuisance while I get my second and third cities online.
By the time I peace out, I've got three good cities, and explored the rest of the continent. I have Spain in the South-east, America in North-east, and the Ottomans on a peninsula in the far east. Ottomans look scarily strong, but America and Spain are good friends, and I tech up, horde gold and beeline to Chu-Ko-Nos. I open Tradition, then fill out Honour. Instead of just making buildings in peacetime though, I make myself a proper army. 10 CBs, 8 melees (horsemen, swordsmen and spearmen), and a couple of catapults for good luck. Then, then turn Machinery hits, I upgrade all my CBs and declare war on Poland again. Now he annoyingly plonked a city in the middle of my empire while I wasn't paying attention, but it's cut off from his supply lines, and I simply shoot it to 0HP and let an allied city-state take it. Then I go north, my CKNs cut through his army like butter, and I take Warsaw (which houses Statue of Zeus!). By then, Spain have piled on them too and raze their last city after I shoot it to death.
Now, I have a DOF with both Spain and America, and the Ottomans are too far away to hurt. But I don't want to lose my window of opportunity with the CKNs, and I mistakenly believe that if I defensive-pact Spain and then bribe America to declare on them, I can declare on America without getting a backstab penalty. I'm wrong, but it doesn't matter, I breeze through America, wiping out their forces and taking Washington and New York (the latter was in a good spot and had a unique lux (and another in citadel-bomb range), so I kept it).
The Ottomans have crept out of their peninsula, founding one city and taking another from Spain. I bribe them to declare on Spain again, hoping they might be able to take Madrid and allow me to get that capital without having to betray my buddy, but they aren't interested so I just declare on them and take both the cities. They have their Janissiaries and XBs, which would normally scare me away, but having a proper army of CKNs makes conquering these two satellite cities child's play.
I've not peaced out yet, just farming some XP from their allied CSs. Their main empire is connected only by a two-tile land bridge, which is protected by one of these allies, so sadly I can't go much further at this point. I think my next move will be to build a navy and go conquer some cities on the other continent (where Dido has conquered the other civs there), while I build up some gold and convert the CS into my ally. But I'm in a great position - I'm level on tech with the leaders (Suleiman and Dido), I have 11 wonders (including Notre Dame, SoZ, Petra and Chichen Itza, and only one of them I built myself (Hanging Gardens, because nobody else went Tradition, plus there was a CS quest for it), nobody can threaten me on my homeland, and I've got a strong, promoted army, having only lost three units in four wars (1 CKN, a Knight, and a Scout on auto-explore). Not to count my chickens but I'm set up pretty nicely for a DomV.
