WoW, this is a really wierd game. I have kicked/killed AI butt. All the civs in this part of the world are out. I am in total control of all land in this part of the world. I built FP on the Rome island with a GL.
THe wierd part is that the Iroquois are the only other civ in the game! Japan, India, England all eliminated by the Native Americans!
Its come down to the two native American civs, and this one is big! I have a 1000 point lead, but the Iroquois have a large army and a large amount of territory, not as large as mine. These guys are absolutely madly dangerous. This is the first game the AI has killed 3 other civs before I ever had a chance to meet them.
Even though Iroquios now is a huge threat, the game is going smoothly. I have 3 tech lead over Iroquois and in Monarchy w/o Golden Age, am still pumping out new Industrial Age techs in 7-8 turns and making 100+ gpt. I have all but Sun Tzu wonder in the Middle Age. Tenochitlan has a huge culture and I could win by that.
I started a fake war with the Iroquois. Well, its not completely fake. I declared war, from the other side of the world. They had a caravel wandering nearby and I sank it. Hopefully they will start to mobilize and build useless units, and try an invasion which I am more the prepared for. If they do this, they will get bombed by tons of cannons, and then beaten up by ironclads. If any land, I have 70 knights and more muskets ready to send them to hell.
Now taking a step back before invasion of China and Rome. I was near war with Zulus as they were trying to conquer a Roman town. I declared war because I had many horsemen and swordsmen sitting next to Zululand. I invaded their three remaining cities after the earlier war. It was a quick sucess and they were out. Next I looked at China, as my troops were departing the south to return North or go elsewhere. I didn't want Chinese cities on my continent. That was my goal for the moment. I declared war and took their two cities on my continent. I made an alliance with ROme and the old Sino-Roman war was restarted. This time China was even more powerful and took a Roman city. I needed to help Rome. Rome didn't have any iron, so I traded some to them. They created Legionares which slowed the Chinese advance. I finally decided to send some troops since I didn't want China to take the whole island. I landed a few swordsmen that were promptly cut up by Chinese swords. I sent in more swordsmen and catapults to capture Veii, a Roman city conquered by China. They won and took the city, but the Chinese struck back with great force and killed several of my elite swordsmen and pikemen. It was a siege but China had to retreat to heal and because 2 Romans showed up ready to beat down some injured swordsmen. A turn or two later Rome made peace with China!!! That ruined everything. The war was created to waste the two civs resources and now there was peace. I would start suffering! I continued my war against China.
BUT, the Roman showed its true light. They allied with the Chinese! It was me vs. these two. I didn't want to fight both, not they were more powerful, but I would lose many of my swordsmen in the upcoming battles, before reinforcements arrived and then even it would take forever to get anywhere since it was a naval invasion. Atleast my catapults on the shore kept harrasing the Chinese and Roman galleys and my galleys sank the broken ones. At that point I discovered Chivalry, and upgraded 20 horsemen. I loaded them up onto 8 or 9 galleys and shipped them over. They landed and destroyed the remnants of the Chinese seige. Everybody healed up and I sent them in to take another city from China, to greatly weaken my enemy. I got the city with few losses. My plan at that moment was to fortify Veii with most of my soldiers and let the rest return to the mainland. But I decided to continue this aggression, as I upgraded some more horsemen and shipped them over too. A few more Chinese cities were taken. Rome wasn't doing anything. Beijing was finally captured. Now it was time to beat up the traitors. I took several Roman cities in a flash and cut off the Chinese iron, because the swordsmen were causing havoc. Rome fell quickly and had 3 cities left. A little more beating down on China and they were mostly finished. Then I loaded up 2 sets of Knights, one fresh lot and one battle-worn lot and had them go off to 2 islands where the last Roman and Chinese cities were. I invaded and destroyed.
My original plan had been to waste Roman and Chinese resources. Later it was to raze a couple of Chinese cities to weaken them. In the end I went and destroyed them.
After that I got a GL and built the FP. The whole island became very productive and built up mostly. I continued and finished expanding on the mainland, and cut down most of the jungles. I was zooming through the techs, and building wonders. My citizens are very happy because they have Sistines and Bachs.
I also am building Iron Works. I have a decent production city that got iron and coal. It will have alot of corruption still but I'll be able to get alot of out of it. I'm not telling where it is, though!
)).
Mr. Mod Plough
) I finish off the Russians, hook up some Iron, upgrade a bunch of Jags to Swordsmen and I'm looking lustfully at Cleopatra. 
