"How to dominate the world with <Civ>"

[Chep]

there is some serious room for improvements in that one

first off: get the early great spy (whip a courthouse and set a spy specialist early on), either take techs (engineering&guilds) from Portugal or try it on the Ottomans if you want to wait.
I really think that going for the UHV-golden-age slows you down more than it helps, I mean you have to get Cordoba to size 13/14 for UHV1 which is already quite a feat but if you ignore that you can get a lot of production done with that city...
also, if you comply with Spains requests you can get them to lay off their attack until ~1200AD if you want.
If you have workers (or slaves) to spare, you can place them 1E of Cordoba, Spain will attack them with a Knight and you can pick them of 1by1 this way.

I think I'll have another go and try to conquer Spain earlier than before but I'm not quite convinced yet.

 

[mrrandomplayer]

My old strategy was to beeline Camel Gunners and go from there (kill Spain and. Portugal). I assume tech trading with Arabia and Mali is extremely important.

 

[youtien]

there is some serious room for improvements in that one

first off: get the early great spy (whip a courthouse and set a spy specialist early on), either take techs (engineering&guilds) from Portugal or try it on the Ottomans if you want to wait.
I really think that going for the UHV-golden-age slows you down more than it helps, I mean you have to get Cordoba to size 13/14 for UHV1 which is already quite a feat but if you ignore that you can get a lot of production done with that city...
also, if you comply with Spains requests you can get them to lay off their attack until ~1200AD if you want.
If you have workers (or slaves) to spare, you can place them 1E of Cordoba, Spain will attack them with a Knight and you can pick them of 1by1 this way.

I think I'll have another go and try to conquer Spain earlier than before but I'm not quite convinced yet.

Yes, but you have to research feudalism for knights anyway, and city size helps. The only other important unit is catapult, Wahran can produce it. Also, we need 2-3 triremes to assure that our water won't be blocked.

 

[youtien]

Now it is 1550, I got 17% of the land, have rifling and astronomy and constitution as my final tech, have 4 vassals, warring with holy Romans, will spam settlers till victory.

 

[Hojsimpson]

Japan
Research Alphabet and trade techs
Switch to mercenaries, science slider to 0%. you could conquer China before mongols spawn.
Or you could capitulate them and steal techs from them. It´s cheaper to steal than to research, and you could ask them to research what you want. Now their UP gets obsolete, but before it was awesome.
Mongols won´t declare war on China if China is your vassal.
I send and army (defended with 3 or 4 trirremes) to conquer Aksum, switch to paganism and gift Arabs aesthetics(so they sign open borders with you)
In Aksum I build more siege weapons(you can´t build samurais in Aksum) to help the army i´ve sent there conquer Egypt.
The Great Lighthouse is a really cool wonder for Japan, they have a high city maintenance cost, the trade routes will help a lot.

Khmer, Korea, Indonesia and Thailand are also very easy to conquer.
Then I´m not really sure of what to do.
Capitulate Spain and England will be good (they settle cities in America that count for domination victory)

I didn´t read any strategies for Japan, do you have one?

 

[Chep]

600AD I presume?

I usually go for an early great spy, conquer Korea, Indonesia, Khmer and then steal all of Chinas techs before the Mongols crush them (I help and get 2-3 cities).
Still your way seems interesting.
By what time do you reach Aksum/start conquering Egypt?
I think declaring war on Byzantium/Egypt is the easiest way to get them to open borders. you should either send an early spy through Arab lands or a worker (can cross jungle and marsh and has 2 move) or explorer along the Silk Road towards Russia/Byzantium.
Also I usually settle a few cities in the Americas first and then conquer Britain as starting point for Invasions or harbour for Privateers. I think vasallizing France is better than England as this allows you to conquer India for yourself.
My favourite vasalls would be: France, Russia, Mongolia - they all have huge stretches of land to occupy and no essential cities there that you would want to have.

 

[Hojsimpson]

600AD start is better than the 3000BC start. You could steal more techs from China.

Aksum around 1000AD (or Mekkah if they don´t have camel archers near)
Conquer Egypt when possible.

 

[mrrandomplayer]

I'm giving this thread a bump because I've brewed up some new strategies for everyone.

India:
Now that Babylon's gotten the nerfstick and Leoreth finally fixed the worker problem, India Polytheism strategies are viable again!

My current strategy:

1. Send the settler on spawn to the gems (Kalyani). Dilli and Varanasi will flip to you before you build Kalyani, so have the workers first improve the rice between Dilli and Varanasi, then cottage the flood plains, then get the rest of the food resources. Build Barracks (or a Library if one is already there) in Dilli, and build a Settler in Varanasi as soon as it gets to size 4. Build 2 galleys in Kalyani and research zircon Working. Keep a defender in each city and send the rest west through Babylon (DOW them).
2. Once you have Iron Working and know Phoenicia, trade IW, Meditation, and a Agriculture for Polytheism, Priesthood, and Masonry (ideally), researching the stuff you can't trade for. Then go for Math->Calendar.
3. Build the Oracle in Dilli, bulbing Metal a Casting. Once the settler in Varanasi is finished, send him on a Galley to the Sri Lanka Iron (Anuradhapura) and start the Great Cothon. Anuradhapura is critical because of India's lack of good port city spots. Anyway, build the Temple of Artemis in Varanasi (even if Greece beats you, the failgold is very useful) and the Great Lighthouse in Kalyani.
4. Trade Metal Casting for Alphabet from Phoenicia, then DOW them, because it slows them down from building the Lighthouse and Cothon. DOWing Greece and/or bribing Rome to attack them can also help. Once you have Alphabet, trade Monarchy from Persia.
5. Build/whip 4 Swordsmen with City Raider 1 (and whip a Hindu Temple if you don't get the Temple). Send them on your galleys and burn Kachnipuram.
6. Kill the Tamils on spawn. Sometimes, 4 isn't enough or theTamils will leave an Elephant in their city, meaning that you might have to savescum a bit.
7. Research Monotheism and bulb Theology with a GP, founding Catholicism.
8. Build Shwegadon Paya and switch to Secularism once you finish the Colossus. This will let you build all wonders and increase your tech and relations.
9. Expand across India and SE Asia, building Patalla (on the cotton near the desert floodplains that appear in 100 AD), Hanoi, Dhaka (a great Canal city), and possibly Manila (if you want to go after another Euro later)
10. Bulb Divine Right with another GP, but don't finish it until the cost goes down in 600 AD.
11. Build wonders and tech towards Military Tradition, getting Horses from China or Mongolia. Get ~20 Cuirassiers and kill the Mughals right after the peace treaty expires (or on the 3rd turn if you start at war). The great thing about the nerfed Mughal spawn is that if they only flip Dilli, you don't have to worry about the messy details of a flip war. Also gobble up southern China if you can after they collapse.
12. Get American conquerors and beeline for Astronomy, then Military Science, then Chemistry.
13. After you get Astronomy, load your massive army of Cuirs and City Raider 3 Heavy Swordsmen on some Galleons and send them to Europe.
You'll need to wipe out the following civs:
Portugal: they usually target Anuradhapura, burn everything, kill them first because TC triggers on Astronomy for them
NOT France, I'm pretty sure Kalyani isn't included in TC.
Spain, but only if you settled Manila (give their cities to the Moors)
England: Capture London first and keep it, then you can upgrade your Heavy Swordsmen into Grenadiers with City Raider 3 and burn down the rest of England. Keep an eye on your stability, however! London makes a great parking lot for your Privateer hordes as well as being a good city on its own.
14. Spam Privateers and build Trafalgar Square in Anuradhapura. This will keep the Euros down.
15. Play at will!

I will post Tamil and updated Phoenicia strategies tomorrow.