Need advice on Deity(where do I go from...?)

[Mirando]

I could very much use some tips on what I should do now in this game.
I'm playing as Harun, I got GL, PT, ND and Machu in my cap. I started out with three cities, had an early war with Hiawatha in the east, got friendly with his neighbor Oda who captured some of his cities.
After fending off Hiawatha I went of to capture Babylon with my camel archers. It was quite attractive(but also quite the happiness hit):

Spoiler :

As I capture Babylon, previously friendly Bismarck and Hiawatha DOW me. I have a RA with Oda coming up in a few turns and then one with Ramesses and I have a GS.

Where do I go from here? Obviously I must try not to get killed by Bismarck but I'm behind in tech and it will take many turns before Babylon or Akkad will be of any use.
I have a culture CS between me and Bismarck who will probably get crushed.
My camel archers are heavily upgraded(3 terrain, logistics+siege and/or march).

Map and diplo screen:

Spoiler :

BTW, the goal I had when I started the game was diplomatic...

 

[Mirando]

Please, I still need help. ATM its turn 200:
I'm at war with Bismarck and Oda. Hiawatha made peace.
Bismarck is at war with me and Ramesses. Ramesses is at peace with the others.
Hiawatha is at war with Oda.

Ramesses has most of the CS's and is filthy rich. Germany gobbled up the ones that were allied with Babylon. I'm not sure how friendly Ramesses is. One turn he would only give me 36 for open borders but now he at least gives me 209 for lux.
Germany captured Lhasa and because of that pretty much has a clear path towards my 2nd city. Before that I had a good line of defense.
I'm 8 turns away from military science and I think I have to bulb artillery after that. To defend and get Lhasa back.

Is diplo victory at all possible? Do you think it would be easier to go for space?

BTW, how come this puppet is gaining 7+ for GM? If it gets one it will mess up my GS acquisition...

Spoiler :

 

[vanjito]

It has 2 specialists in Bazaar and Bank, but it doesn't show

you could annex it, purchase courthouse...

Go for artillery and 'diplo' (as it seems your only choice), but you definitely need more science than 155 at turn 200
(say, 350 would be nice)

How are you doing in demographics, I suspect next to last in science (Babylon last)?

 

[Mirando]

It has 2 specialists in Bazaar and Bank, but it doesn't show

you could annex it, purchase courthouse...

Go for artillery and 'diplo' (as it seems your only choice), but you definitely need more science than 155 at turn 200
(say, 350 would be nice)

How are you doing in demographics, I suspect next to last in science (Babylon last)?

Looked weird because it usually shows any filled specialist slots! Yes, or at least I'm gonna annex Babylon.
Yes, and yet I have public schools in all my own cities and an observatory in Mecca. I haven't gotten to growing them yet because of being at war with technologically superior AI's for 100+ turns : /

But how do you get to 350 science on turn 200? I have never accomplished that. By just growing big cities and filling all GS slots? Best science output I've ever had was probably with Sejong on immortal. Can't remember precisely but I think it was around those numbers.

Yes, don't have the game running ATM but that is probably correct. I have no one to sign RA's with... Would it have been easier playing on a standard map? For more RA's?
I have tons of lux's but no one to sell them to.

 

[vanjito]

Your cities (Mecca, Medina) are really small, grow them bigger
(yes you need production, but with bigger cities also comes bigger production)

Always build all tech buildings as soon as they are available, fill their slots.

Also, Rationalism helps, a lot - what policy trees you have?

 

[Mirando]

Yes, they need to grow a lot. ATM, I have public schools in all cities with all GS slots filled.
I'm up to 237 beakers per turn now and I am about to pick secularism which will boost it further.
These are my social policies now:

Spoiler :

Edit: Man this game is lost... Freaking Germany... Harassed me with fighters for like 30 turns. I managed to only losing 1 riflemen but I had to "hide" all my units.
So he started to wear down Akkad with them. I even put down 2 citadels(I had like 6 GG's).
Akkad was down to ~1 hp and when he got panzers it was just over... I had just gotten artillery.

I think one of the biggest things in this game was that I had NO ONE to trade with. Arabia is all about trading.
I might try again on a continents map and on standard instead of small.

 

[Banman]

sorry to be coming to this a little too late, but thought I would share a few thoughts I had on looking at the post -- one question first: why did you go down the right side of the rationalism tree before the left? I haven't tried going down the right side before the left myself, mostly because the left side policies boost your science much more than the right side policies (wh/generally boost the other benefits of having a science focus).

Looks to me like your main problems were:
1) neglecting your base research --> need to get your cities big fast to drive research and production, especially when facing high-difficulty-level ai's ...
2) taking babylon's capital while being behind in tech and ill-positioned to defend a pile-up of AI attacks ...
a) i don't remember the exact mechanics of this (they're somewhere in the forums), but the upshot is that everybody's opinion of you will drop when you take an AI capital and when you eliminate an AI completely ... if they were already ambivalent towards you, that can push them over the edge.
b) in my observation, a pile-up of AI opponents is almost inevitable at some point in immortal/deity level games unless you have managed to run away or geography is really on your side --> the AI is aware of your relative demographic standing to them, and if they have big tech/military/economic edges and are disposed to war then they will pile on when you are looking weak ... mostly I use geography (where can attacking units get bottle-necked and picked off?) and/or tech edge to defend against this, since you never know when it will happen but if you have defendable terrain and stronger defensive units (artillery/cannons are particularly nice to have when the AI is fielding weaker units) then you can come through alright

I'm not sure how much a different map size would have affected your outcome --> it's hard in my experience to keep RAs rolling while on an offensive war footing, your standing w/other AIs gets very fluid when you're conquering AIs etc. ...