How to approach a domination victory on emperor

[futurehermit]

I'm currently struggling to get a domination victory on emperor. I play: patched warlords/continents/standard/normal/emperor. I don't want to change my settings (e.g., normal --> epic to make it easier).

So, I thought I'd post a request for some discussion here. What is the best way to approach a domination victory on these settings? Let's assume we get the 4-civ continent with 3 civs on the other continent.

Is it better to expand as early as possible to the point where you're seriously straining your economy? Or is it better to stay smallish early while zooming to a tech lead then blasting outwards with superior units? Or is it best to adopt a balanced approach?

I generally run a FE/SE as many people know so I will usually only cottage the capital. I get my $$$ from conquering, trading, etc.

What usually happens to me is that I play more for tech and not crippling my economy (option 2). I get advanced units (e.g., grenadiers) first, but I don't have enough cities to crank out units fast enough to take over my continent at a fast enough pace. I always feel like I wish I had gotten more cities earlier so I could mass more units faster. However, when I start a new game with this intention, I'm reluctant to cripple my economy thus leading to the AIs getting longbows and then it will take me forever to get the tech needed to take them out fast enough...

Any advice would be appreciated

 

[petey]

Try using the Zulu. Their UB is a barracks that reduces city maintenance costs, so that makes expansion easier. Also, their UU is the best pillager out there, so just trounce their improvements so that you can cripple them without having to take all their cities in one go and kill your economy.

Use this strategy in a series of shorter wars intersperesed with building that lets you take the continent by the time you get to Astronomy. Then load everyone onto galleons and take a beachhead on the other continent in one of the cities of whomever is liked the least by his neighbours over there. Expand through him and then pick another target until you get to the DV percentage.

Although this sounds like vanilla domination strategy, the key difference is the use of Impi pillagers against your neighbours early. That slows them down enough to compensate for the bonuses at the higher levels and stops you from getting too far behind for when you want to attack.