I managed to last until the New World was discovered. By then, Rome had conquered Japan and was working on Persia. The Ottomans had taken out India, aside from Delhi, and the Netherlands had managed to peacefully settle about 15 cities and were destroying everyone in culture and science.
Sadly, right around when ideologies started coming out, I got stuck between Indonesia in Order and Rome in Freedom. I tried going Freedom since Rome was a bigger military threat, but the unhappiness just killed me, so I had to revolt to Order. That only barely helped the unhappiness issues and soon after, Rome declared war on me, followed by the Ottomans.
I was easy pickings, really. My military wasn't even up to gatling guns yet, and my tercios stood no chance against Rome's battle-hardened Great War infantry.
I would have lasted a little bit longer via my 4 New World cities that I settled with conquistadors(I love those things), but right after I bribed Rome to a peace deal by giving him my worst city, Persia declared on me and took my other three. I had no military over there, I'd been trying to build up the culture and land area of those cities first, before all the good hexes were taken by the AIs.
Sadly, I didn't realize you can't save the game after losing to conquest, so I don't have a save to submit. All that said, I really did better than I expected for my first Civ V deity game.
Ouch. Painful tale that one.
Here's my Tale of Amusing Woe.
Could I submit this...perhaps, but I gave up on trying to get a competitive time and decided I preferred to see if I could break some kind of record for having chased down a culture target instead =)
Opened like everyone else here, and found that lovely mountain. Had no idea of what was out there (did not think there was anything) but I was attracted to build some triemes and do something about that island because the barb camp I could see from shore was the likely source of the galleys trying to hurt my food ships.
Of course, when I went there, I 'ran aground' on the Great Barrier Reef. Literally. For whatever reason - mabye because to my shock I found the Reef again in the middle of nowhere very near the end - the Reef on that island did not appear on screen. It just gave me goodies, and was occasionally irritating when I forgot it was there in the process of attacking Japanese and Dutch ships.
Anyway, I founded a FPT pantheon, and the plan was to turn Japan into my attack dog by spreading my religion against Persia and Rome. Meanwhile, I did a 4 city settle. I was going to go more, but could not justify the settle location in a way that would be easy to defend.
That plan half worked. Japan took my religion, was Friendly. Went to war with Rome and Persia. However, Rome was beaten (eventually totally - more on that later!) and Persia and Japan did not do any damage to each other.
Then, Japan attacked me. With warnings from the Indonesians. Which I half took seriously, since, well, its Japan. At which point I was really happy for those mountains. It was Samurai - a horde of - and bows, and muskets against crossbows, pikes and two Gallasses - and some Triremes. I won easily. I simply let the Japanese come in, and I blasted them with ranged attacks, and let them train my pikes, which I cycled out. I also let them try amphibious moves, then swarmed them with Triemes. Samurai are sitting ducks in the water. During all of this Persia and I maintained good relations, and my sieged capital spent its time obliviously building wonders. Japan and I also had a sea war in the mutual bay - to no avail. I sank way more of their ships, but it was basically a draw.
There's a move that I always try to use, so long as I can get to Freedom first, and have a policy to spend. The 3 policies give me access to
Volunteer Army - which frankly is enough to conquer deity civs, given the right support in artillery and anti air. What with the mountains and citadel I put down along the Japanese border, about 4 units held them off. Even if I intend to switch ideologies, the detour into Freedom is basically free, so long as I get their first, as I get some credit to what I switch to. Not a bad exchange I'd say for 6 UU's.
My last act of the cold war that followed was to intervene to revive Rome, which had settled a city next to my capital - they were maybe out of it for two turns. After taking the Japanese city and giving it to Rome in the adjacent bay, I went after the Japanese capital - lost a Battleship, and found the rest of the fleet redlined. Retreated so as not to suffer a massive Pyrrhic victory.
In my games, I find I often make use of the revived civs strategy. So as long as we had good relations, I much prefer to revive them, and give them the cities I have no use for. I do not have happiness issues, and do not have to fear the otherwise immediate settler from who knows where plopping down. I also demand their gold per turn and all their resources, which civs are really happy to give you. The ransom they will pay for a Capital is mind boggling.
The Dutch and the Persians came after me next, due to my defence pact with Indonesia, my Freedom pal. The Dutch navy lies in the bottom of the sea, thanks to the subforce, city states allied with me, and the Indonesian navy. It really was a crisis, as the Dutch were cutting trade to such a degree I ended up turning my navy toward their icy colonies to the south of my lands, giving some to Rome, and randoming some back to the Dutch for a mint. The Persian army was deeply weakened by the fact they were not aiming at me, but an Indonesian city, and kept trying to move along the edge of my territory to get a better shot at their target. Having expected war for ages, I'd prebuilt forts, chopped forests and given troops flat land promotions. Played a defensive action supported by artillery till Persia was drained by its wars against the Dutch, Turks, Indians, Indonesians and me.
Anyway at this point I had to seriously act against Persia. They were a good 10k past the Dutch, and their production was better than mine. So, moved in, and went on a liberation spree. Sent my fleet around to the Turkish lands the Persians took, where they helped the Indians fight the Persians to take Turkish lands. I could not help feel like the Russians in the Russo-Japanese war - I just hoped I'd see the fleet again. It was a big risk frankly as I would have had serious issues had Japan tried to come back at that point. The nuclear subs I had did a brilliant job of scouting and clearing the sea lanes, to the point where I sent one to kill Persian ships which had taken Vatican City. Most of the fleet survived the trip (after 2 nuclear attacks on Mumbai). The Romans got pretty well every other city not Susa or the Persian capital.
This was about the point that I said meh, lets see what we can do the hit a record tourism number. So, went to Internet, got hit by a nuclear bomb, watched my land army get taken out by three nuclear bombs in three turns by Persia against their own capital, shrugged, won the Games in a walk, spent my 11k faith, made peace with a friendly Persia and well...was happy to hit over six digits. =)
Thanks for a fun Christmas Game.
P.S. I was *really* surprised to find this New World. Yeah, I know it should have been really obvious, but, I spent a good bit of time trying to see what civ started there!
Oh well, I'll learn 
Thanks for your tips, I'll keep them in mind next time I'm in a situation like this!
