Emperor Midgame Advice

[jpowers]

I haven't played Emperor in a long while and when I did, I didn't get into a situation like this. I'm the Chinese, and thanks to the Rider, have recently taken over my continent. There are two other continents of equal size (standard map) occupied by the Aztecs and Persians who both hate me and each other. We're all about the same size and equal in tech. I anticipate them having infantry very soon, as the two AI Civs trade with each other in absurd fashion. My options seem to be:
Space Race - hard with the Persians around and healthy. I would need to build lots more universities and maybe move my capital and invade Persia with Aztecs to reduce some of their production centers.
Diplomacy - I only need one vote besides my own, but that might be asking too much (I've been a baaaad boy, and everyone else has, too).
Domination - It's not clear to me what I need for this to happen, but I would probably need to build lots of boats.
Conquest - I'd have to prebuild a huge fleet in anticipation of tanks to have a realistic shot at this.
Cultural - no real chance of this for anyone, with all those early Wonders changing hands
Histograph - I don't know what I need to do to get this, or is it the same as Domination?

Here's the game - what do you think?
Ancient Chinese Secrets

 

[superslug]

For Domination, you need 70% of the maps territory and population. There's a program called Mapstat in the files section that will let you determine how many tiles you need within your borders.

Diplomacy sounds out of the question. Histograph is just whoever has the highest score at 2049. Space Race could be tough, too.

Your best bet might be Domination, although it sounds like you'll have to take over more land. The question is, of their two continents, which has a point closest to yours? If you see one close and it has anything with a defensive value (river/jungle/hills/mountains) then you might could do the following:

Declare war and land a force of defenisve units there establishing a beachhead. Hopefully, your defensive units will kill some of theirs in the expected attack. As you hold ground, you can use boats to act as ferries across that small stretch, allowing you time and more production for ground forces. Then, attack when you're ready. You might even be able to use Explorers to duck in and out from your beachead to do some pillaging.

The ferry idea works real well if you have a rail network allowing instantaneous access to your port...

 

[amirsan]

I cant finsh an Emperor in the beggining.

 

[Anti-EUA]

i would wait for space race, and nuke their core cities...although both will declare war. or you could declare war, get aztecs as an ally and nuke persia in their core cities. the main point is to get them in war and be the most productive.
if the 3 of you are in different continents, is really hard to invade. so nuke and be quiet, they will build offensive units instead of the space ship!

 

[Hygro]

This is great: you are clever enough to know how to do well in a hard setting in a complicated game, but you don't remember the vicorty requirements completely.

This is not a bad thing--it shows your mind focuses on the more important fuctions It's just kinda funny.

Anyway, I would say spacerace is quite possible--the human player does the industrial ages far better than the AI, so yeah, build those universities. Leading ahead in tech in emperor is very possible as a matter of fact (though not a simple feat, it is quite doable).

 

[Belisar]

I would go for domination, because if you concentrate on
space race on emperor or deity, you might have to invade too, to
prevent your opponents from launching their ships.
I found myself in a similar situation.
In the industrial age (factories!), produce a lot of artillery,
upgrade your defense units to Inf. and invade. :soldier:
Secure a beachhead on favorable terrain (if you have enough
units, consider to invade on two different points)
with your Inf. and Art. and let them smash against it (and commit suicide).
Bomb. the nearest city back to the stone ages and
raze it. Plant your own with a settler so you can use
THEIR railsystem to move your artillery.
Keep in mind that you will need a few quick units also
(Cav. and later tanks) to take the cities.
Don't wait too long because you will need
a HUGE army once your enemies have Mech.Inf. And do not forget to defend your homelands. (They might invade too)
The most important thing is, however, to attack only one enemy after each other, so you can concentrate your forces. This is the main reason, why I try to avoid ruining my reputation. A smart diplomacy gives you a huge advantage over the AI.

 

[jpowers]

I did build the UN, so I've made nice-nice with the Aztecs via a couple wars of attrition vs. the Persians. When the voting for UN comes up now, all three of us are candidates - I thought it was supposed to be just 2. Anyway, everyone votes for themselves, so I don't think this is going anywhere. As we're in the 1900's now and I have launched two stack-of-death invasions of Persia only to be defeated and anarchied, I think I'm actually going to go for Histograph. As to not remembering the victory conditions, hey, the important part is the journey, not the destination...