Peak Oil Map?

[CornishGuilt]

Hi Dominatrix (great name by the way)

It is harder than you think. If all AI's are relatively equal in capability, I find that they join together defensivly. The strategy is to make the vital civs clients rather than oppositionists. This takes as much strategy as any diplomatic victory. Any stable dominance is gained by being percieved as powerful but not so powerful as to be threatening. That's why it's good to build up an infeasible, and distracting world-power rival by giving a civ some of your conquered (but strategically useless) cities and a small measure of your key military resources. Other civs will smell blood, and throw their armies at them, often in allience. You may then, as the attacked civ's main sponsor, dictate the losses on both sides.
All in all, resources are key to dominance.

 

[D0NIMATRIX]

Always, resources are the lifeblood of your nation. Without any decent resources, you're stuck with spears, archers, and catapults. Your situation requires the human to play his cards EXTREMELY well. If you attack one, they may dogpile you, so make sure that your oil-based beasts can hold the fort against any older units while you conquer other civs. Try to take over their obsolete resources so they can't build anything and then blitz them with a warplan that encompasses three or four cities on the first turn.