Germany's very easy in my eyes too. Your biggest advantage is that you have MUCH more space than every other European civ. Move your settlers to Danzig (to get both coast and river, much better than Berlin), Reval (awesome cottage city) and Kiev/Faustindorff (great production city).
Wait after Frankfurt flips to you, then found Danzig (you'll really need Frankfurt's palace culture to deny the iron to France). Wait another turn, since Kiev and Reval would flip to spawning Russia otherwise, then found both. Build barracks and some catapults and crossbows in Frankfurt via chopping. Another city should build a settler at size 3 to settle Budapest (another awesome production site). If your troops are strong enough, capture Venice and start bombarding Rome to eventually conquer it too.
The key to German success is to tech for Optics and then win the librace in the meantime. With your lots of grassland around Danzig and Reval and building research in Kiev and Budapest, this should be easily doable. Start researching Meditation and then go for guilds, to trade it for Sailing or Civil Service. When you have researched Liberalism, you obviously choose Astronomy. No you have the techs for universities and observatories while no one else has, which should suffice to secure your tech lead through all of the game.
France can be attacked soon after you got Rome, they have no iron and your knights are strong enough to conquer their cities even without trebuchets. The rest of the game then is really easy. Conquer Athens and Istanbul after you've got Gunpowder, then research everything to support your stability. You'll need at least the occupation civic before you attack Russia. If you're lucky, Vikings collapse, so that your condition becomes easier. Attack England only when you are close to 1940, your stability really can't handle another core area for long. If you've kept enough GPs to launch two GAs (never use one earlier), they and an Olympic Park should suffice to keep you intact until you've completed the tech tree.
Wait after Frankfurt flips to you, then found Danzig (you'll really need Frankfurt's palace culture to deny the iron to France). Wait another turn, since Kiev and Reval would flip to spawning Russia otherwise, then found both. Build barracks and some catapults and crossbows in Frankfurt via chopping. Another city should build a settler at size 3 to settle Budapest (another awesome production site). If your troops are strong enough, capture Venice and start bombarding Rome to eventually conquer it too.
The key to German success is to tech for Optics and then win the librace in the meantime. With your lots of grassland around Danzig and Reval and building research in Kiev and Budapest, this should be easily doable. Start researching Meditation and then go for guilds, to trade it for Sailing or Civil Service. When you have researched Liberalism, you obviously choose Astronomy. No you have the techs for universities and observatories while no one else has, which should suffice to secure your tech lead through all of the game.
France can be attacked soon after you got Rome, they have no iron and your knights are strong enough to conquer their cities even without trebuchets. The rest of the game then is really easy. Conquer Athens and Istanbul after you've got Gunpowder, then research everything to support your stability. You'll need at least the occupation civic before you attack Russia. If you're lucky, Vikings collapse, so that your condition becomes easier. Attack England only when you are close to 1940, your stability really can't handle another core area for long. If you've kept enough GPs to launch two GAs (never use one earlier), they and an Olympic Park should suffice to keep you intact until you've completed the tech tree.
. However I am yet unsure if it would have been better to wait for ecology for the health bonus to make more scientists.
