At first I have to tell you how amazed I was on the progress Strauss has been making against China. Congratulations and thank you for your efforts!
Pre-turn:
Declare on Montezuma immediately (why wait for what deal is up?) and bomb down the defences of L.A. Capture L.A. (1 lbow, 2 pikes, 3 knights and a cat)
We now trade bananas for 9gpt to Alex, replacing the former deal we had with Monte. We need gold. We've got a lot of outdated unit stuff.
1862 (1):
We destroy a stack of 5 units (2 muskets, 2 maces and a cat).
For 9 gpt we trade incenses to Mao. I know such is about to discuss, but the gold is very important to us, am I right?
1864 (2):
We've lost our Chinese prey city of Yangzhou, that had no unit and nothing could be done about it ... But anyways the city was quite worthless to us.
We destroy 2 knights pillaging in the south.
1866 (3):
Mao comes and offers open borders again. I do not want another war with him YET in the north as I have to deal with Monte. So we agree. Always watch his troop movements and power graphs...!
1868 (4):
Another stack (war elefant, 2 knights and an x-bow) is destroyed 2 s near L.A. without casualties, another big stack approaching in the south.
1870 (5):
A Rifleman is destroyed in the south.
1872 (6):
At the expense of two suicide cannons I manage to destroy a stack of a rifleman, a musket several knights and a cat. The rifleman (being at the hill) was the problem here. The first suicide did not work. I should have let the stack advance at the expense of one or two improvements rather than doing this. We need artillery.
1874 (7):
Aztec counter-attack. A rifleman, several cats and knights are thrown at our brave cossacks stationed at the hill where we lost our cannons.
We advance towards Mycenian destroying another stack of war elephants, knights and horse archers (???). Seems desperate
1876 (8):
Frederick comes and cancels the deal of 12 gpt from him for ivory. I ask if he could give us 12 gpt for free instead and he agrees.

Mycenian is strongly defended by two city rifles that will not easily fall.
1878 (9):
Defending the borders of Tlaxcala a supidly placed cossack (my fault, I did'nt think about roads) falls after destroying a knight.
Meanwhile at the loss of an infantry, Mycenian is ours. I popped a great artist here (anotherone is waiting in L.A.) as Greece is pressing very hard. Mycenian has a lot of population that I will use to whip some happiness and culture.
I sell Biology and Liberalism to Cyrus for his Combustion, some gold and his map. Expensive but a deal that's good for us as we have no monopoly on Biology.
1880 (10):
Communism is in. I would advice not to switch to State Property, but wait for Police State (5 turns witch Fascism) to come in. I lost 2 infantries at 90% odds
Conclusion:
During my reign a north-south railroad has been established to quickly move troops as well as railroads to increase production and many Factories have been started to build, coal plants are important. Moscow is great in production. Maybe build the Pentagon here (9 turns) for higher initial promotions?
Montezuma is now suffering really hard. Against our infantry he has no chance and our cossacks still are great to deal with his main force. But war weariness is hitting us as well. I had to increase the luxury spendings to 10%. As Montezuma has nothing to offer for peace we should though continue to advance on him. Take at least one further city. We're strong in spite of our bank lacking and we should take advantage of his bawardness. Infantry and cannons are the key now.
Watch out for some Aztec units. Don't let them pillage too much!
Farae, you're up with your great Empire again! You should gain pretty much production power very soon that you can use to grow our military.