I'm going to make a full report of a game I played with Civ V and its recent expansion.
I chose Byzanthium as my civilization, which is the one who gets most benefits from religion. I played on emperor difficulty, standard time, standard size, using the new tilted axis map (continent option). Since I'm not really a fan of city states, in my games I usually reduce their numbers and add a few more AIs until the numbers of civs and city states are equal. In this case I set 10 civs and 10 city states.
This is how the generated map looked like when I started
As you can see the tilted axis map splits the world in a northern emisphere, which is completely glaciated, and a southern emisphere where the only fertile land is found. In this map the scarce availability of worthwhile soil to colonize is further reduced by a vast predominance of oceans.
My civ ended up in the bigger cluster where 80% of civs are gathered. France and Austria were practically isolated the whole game, but since there wasn't much fertile land in their cluster, they weren't really that advantaged. Plus they spent most of their time warring against each other without ever prevailing.
Anyway the peculiarity of tilted axis is that the northern emisphere, while being unapt for colonization is still extremily rich in resources such as oil, carbon, uranium and aluminium. It is therefore meant to be the stage of end game contentions.
Anyway with that many civs packed in the same place it was obvious from the start that wars would start early and expanding as fast as possible was mandatory, and this is a point that the AI rarely fails to understand.
I went for a mix of Tradition and Liberty in this game, trying to get the best bonuses for empire growth rather than military which can be compensated with skills.
After 72 turns this was the general situation:
Egypt was clearly going for a one city cultural victory and it started building wonders very early.
The songhai and the celts tried to rush an expansion without caring about oustretching too much in other territories, this is a strategy that proved to be fatal for both.
I decided to get my first expansion close to my capital and out of harm's way. It turned out to be one of my best producing cities almost on par with my capital.
China and Japan went with my same strategy.
As for India and Inca, the reason they didn't expand is because they were both building armies to quickly conquer their neighbors. Needless to say it, Inca's target was none else but my capital...
But before that let me talk about the religious situation. The celts were obviously the first to found one, with their faith bonus nobody can beat them. Of course they chose christianity, but it didn't have much success... you'll soon learn why.
The second religion founded was induism by India and for a long while it was the predominant religion of the continent. They simply were too fast in gathering faith points and then they spread missionaries everywhere. Moreover they chose "religious texts" as one of the religious benefits that greatly enhanced the strength of their religion diffusion.
France and Austria chose Buddhism and Confucianism respectively. As France grew stronger and stronger so did Buddhism, and confucianism was relegated on Austria's first three cities.
As for me I managed to found judaism when there was but a single spot left open. It would have been disastrous if I missed it, since Byzanthium has absolutely no advantage if you don't found a religion.
Anyway the Inca declared war on me while I was still in the middle of improving and expanding my empire while trying to get a wonder or two before the other civs. They had about 8-9 military units while I had just three.
Now this is something that often happened to me, but it's not bad as you may think, in fact it is quite easy to quickly switch to military production and turn the tides completely. Archers are cheap and whether you want to defend or attack you want to have a lot of them. I sold some stuff to get enough money to buy two (you can sell open borders for 50 gold. You just need to find four civs willing to buy that and you get an archer unit) and I quickly switched production.
By taking advantage of slow terrain and targeting the few melee units I managed to destroy the incan army in a few turns and at that point they had barely two units while I was plenty.
And this is where I usually decide to make them pay for they hubris and knock at their capital's door with my recently created army. There are three good reasons for that:
1) They dared to try and wipe me out from the game, they must be punished.
2) They just wasted resources building an army that got completely destroyed, now they are defenseless and underdeveloped, it would be stupid not to take advantage of that.
3) Now I got an army in the early phase of the game and they are sucking the few gold resources that I have. I better make them go to war and make their sacrifice be worthwhile rather than simply destroy those in excess.
I'm not sure why people say you can't conquer in early eras. This is completely false. I conquer civs with archers and warriors all the time. The only problem is distance. If civs are spread far away from each other you'll have a hard time moving your slow units, but when civs are close enough there's absolutely no problem. And siege weapons are absolutely not mandatory. In this game for example I conquered not one but two cities with just archers and a few melee units. And this is emperor difficulty.
So after I repelled the Inca's army I moved my own south, trying to attack them from west where it was all plains and my units could move more freely. But as I was there I just noticed how completely defenseless the celts' expansion was. I checked with my military advisor and he confirmed that they barely had any unit. And so I thought: well why not?! The Inca can wait!
Conquering the celts' city was a joke, I soon learned why: the Indian at the very same time conquered their capital and so Boudicca was the first to bite the dust.
Notice how the Inca quickly took advantage of the fact I was occupied elsewhere to expand. But it was kinda pointless since they went right in the mouth of others not really welcoming civs.
Anyway after my first conquest I had to wait a little to recover my strength and then I sent my army to the Inca's capital. This time it was a lot harder. Their capital was a lot stronger and with their archer they could almost kill one of my units in one turn. If it wasn't for a timely level up that let me heal my melee unit, this attempt would have probably failed, but lucky for me all went well and In the end even the Inca capitulated. The songhai took care of their pathetic expansion.
At this point I was pretty satisfied about how the game was progressing. I had four cities, two of which capitals, enough luxuries and enough space around me. In addition all my enemies where on one side so I didn't need to worry about attacks from the east. My two cities in danger zone were completely surrounded by forests which made any attempt at invading me quite difficult.
But as one empire get stronger, nearbies civs get jeaolous and the response quickly came in the form of a joint attack from both Songhai and China.
This was one of the most critic phases of the game. They had huge armies compared to mine. Lucky for me China took its time before knocking at my door and by that time the Songhai already suffered too many losses from me which prompted Japan to attack them from the other side. At that point the songhai were no longer a problem but the chinese were
The bastards took advantage of the fact I was rooked in my confines to sneak a settler just south of my city. Absolutely unexcusable!
Once I managed to assemble an army good enough for the task and once I repelled the bulk of their attackers I went on a punitive mission and I razed that bothersome expansion. At this point I went further and I razed even their northern expansion. I couldn't conquer those cities because I had hate issues, but I really wanted to conquer their capital which had a lot of wonders.
As you can see the freed space on my south border was quickly taken by the songhai... but at least they settled further east which wasn't as bad as before. from this point onward the Songhai were converted to my religion and we've been good buddies ever since. I wasn't really happy with their cities just in the middle of my empire but as long as we were allies I didn't mind, and they never betrayed me. I think religion is what really did the magic here, I never experienced such long term friendhip in previous games. They'd always backstab me sooner or later, especially if they were warmongering civs like the songhai.
Anyway my dreams of conquest were suddenly crushed by an unexpected attack from India. Those bastards were lucky enough to conquer the most fertile land of the planet, they grew far and wide in a most ideal area and they became one of the strongest empire in the game. Their army was nothing to be trifled with and my southern city was on the point of being conquered. I've only survived because I managed to dispose of their melee units, but not with a few sacrifices.
I had to retreat from the Chinese borders of course after quickly signing a peace treaty.
You'd think that the Chinese at this point became more docile, right? Not a chance, they built an even greater army! So when I finally managed to end the war against India, I found myself with a China even stronger than before!
When they conquered Thebes (with all its wonders!), destroying the Egyptians, I knew I had to stop them before it was too late.
This is the point of China's maximum expansion and splendor. If it wasn't for me, they'd probably win the game. This is also the Songhai's worst moment. I think it was only a matter of time before they were crushed by the combined attacks of India and China, but quite wisely they decided to be my allies.
Also notice how I founded three new cities at this point. I realized that I was too weak to conquer my neighbors and so I took advantage of the free space I created for my self in the first phases of the game.
Anyway I was trying to assemble an army to compete against China's huge force, but I didn't have to declare war on them... they attacked me first!
However... it turns out they decided to attack me just four turns before I finished my research on dynamite... and that means... artillery!
The poor Chinese got a very bad surprise! When I got four artilleries on their asses they soon realized what big mistake they made in attacking me!
But it was too late, their huge force could do nothing to stop me as I was bombarding them from afar. Their armies were wiped and their cities fell one by one. They should have really researched artillery too, but it was too late.
Of course once an empire gets low on military power, the neighbors tend to take advantage of that, and China quickly found itself against me, Songhai and Japan.
Now the poor guys quickly asked for peace. Seriously? The bastards tried to wipe me out of the planet not once but twice! And now they were asking me to make peace without offering a damn thing! Sure, why not? I would just let them off the hook so that they could rebuild an army and backstab me again! Like hell!
I decided to listen to their "peace" offer only
after I conquered their capital and nearby cities, thus making sure they wouldn't bother me ever again!
So at this point I was pretty sure I had a won game. My empire was vast, strong, I had the highest number of cities both in my control and under religious influence.
What could go bad?
And then the awful news came: India just completed the apollo program!
I had really a bad memory about that. There was another game I played where everything seemed to go fine, except a civ that was quite far from me had an incredible rush in technological advancement and won the game before I could do anything to stop them.
I knew I couldn't let the same thing to happen again, I had to conquer India's capital and prevent them from achieving a scientific victory. The problem is that they were at least 5 technologies farther from me, and if I attacked them at that point I would've been slaughtered. There was only one thing that I could do, rush my technology output and get bombarders and aircrafts as quickly as I could. Lucky for me it was right the time when I had access to scientific laboratories, so I quickly made all my cities build them.
There was a long time of peace, here. Songhai were my faithful allies, Japan didn't dare to attack me, China was practically out of the game and India had no interest in starting a war against me when they could simply outtech me.
In the meantime I befriended France who was the strongest empire on the other continent. France, me and Songhai became a strong comintern alliance, as we all chose Order as our modern social policy. On the downside, Austria that was constantly at war with France became my enemy, but I couldn't care less.
In the meantime, other bad news: India completed the manhattan project! Oh man! I checked if they had access to uranium and unfortunately... they had. Not only India was extremely advantaged technologically, they were also filthly rich! They had bought practically all the city states of the planet, and they could have as well gone for a diplomatic victory too! As if that wasn't enough their low city empire and yet extemely populated granted them quite a boost in the cultural department!
But my scientists were doing a good job. I had tons of cities and they all had the best scientific buildings, my science output was stellar, I was catching up! I completed the manhattan project as well and uranium was not an issue.
This is the situation my empire and the indian empire were a few turns before the final war that decided the game started:
You can see here just how strong the Indian capital was and how more technologically advanced they were compared to me. The area around Dheli is all fertile land, 34 citizens, 163 defense and four aircrafts! There is a fifth city they had which is hidden just below that solitary cloud, and that was also quite populated.
In comparison my land was a lot more unforgiving, some of my cities couldn't get past the 7 citizens due to heavy lack of food. Just think about what kind of shitty place the Inca started in with Cusco...
Anyway I was building two atomic bombs which I would use to weaken their capital and wipe those nasty aircrafts. In the meantime I almost finished to build a submarine which would complete my fleet. I was planning to go straight to Edinburg and conquer it first.
Also notice how I placed my artilleries on Songhai territory. From there I could destroy those nasty SAMs and India couldn't do a damn thing unless they also declared war on Songhai! Ha!
Anyway something prompted me to declare war before my army was properly prepared. India decided to attack Thebes!
That was really something that I couldn't overlook, Thebes was a mine of wonders and China had absolutely no way to stop an Indian invasion. But this was also a good news for me. I knew that the main bulk of the Indian's army was occupied on the opposite side of the map, I had to take advantage of that quickly!
And so I declared war. At that point I realized that India was most probably going to nuke me. It would have been extremely bad if the nuke destroyed all my aircrafts in one shot, so I decided to scatter them to the four corners of my empire and wait for the inevitable. I left just one on Dublin to provide cover from enemy aircrafts.
In the meantime my artilleries made short work of those sams, my fleet started bombarding Edinburg finding practically no resistance and my land units advanced.
It was going well, India's eastern front was really left on its own as the main force was occupied attacking Thebes. Edinburg was bound to fall. But then the expected happened, except it was a lot worse than what I expected.
India didn't just throw an atomic bomb at me... it used a freaking nuclear missile! Right on my capital!!!
It was devastating! The total populace dropped to seven, all nearby territories became polluted by the fallout.
But as much as it was bad for my capital, my army remained practically unscated. I only lost a single aircraft. I knew that India didn't have enough uranium to built two nuclear missiles, so at that point I could avenge the death of millions of citizens!
Ironically, my capital finished producing my first atomic bomb right the turn after it got nuked! If this isn't poetic justice...
Dheli got promptly bombed, causing its populace to drop and its health to drop to yellow. Also most of the units that were defending it got severely damaged and of the four aircraft it had, only a bomber somehow survived.
Edinburg fell. all my aircrafts were gathered and promoted. My artilleries got promoted to rocket artilleries. It was a lopsided battle!
Dheli couldn't recover from that strike and the territory around the city was just too open to be defended. When the main force from Thebes returned after conquering the city, it was too late. Dheli had fallen and I was about to conquer Vijayanagara too. No more scientific victory for you India!
In the meantime Japan struck a deadly attack against China, wiping it out and then against the weakened India. When I offered peace India promptely accepted and focused on repelling the japanese forces. It went well for them in the end, but at that point they were too severely weakened and they couldn't pose a threat against me anymore.
I decided to go for a scientific victory myself, since going and conquer the other continent would have been too much of a bother and beside I wanted to honor my alliance with France.
My score at this point was almost twice as high as anyone else's, after conquering Dheli I even got the first place in population. Constantinople, my capital, quickly recovered by sending an army of workers to clean the land, by buying all the growth improving buildings that I could get and by setting the focus on growth.
The conquest of Dheli also net me several wonders that made my civ happiness skyrocket to 40. I could expand more, but I didn't really need to.
My upgraded army was extremely strong and no one in its sane mind would dare attack me at that point. It was a won game by then, I only needed to wait until my scientists completed the necessary researches.
The north became a theater of epic battles between Japan and Songhai, but I completely missed it. I didn't really need the resources and those cities rarely got past the 1 citizen, quite pathetic.
The same thing happened on the other continent between France and Austria, but as much as France's empire looks big, it was for the most par just a lot of snowy land.
The race to victory concluded on the 428th turn, after the launch of the first interstellar starship in human's history. India was even winning against Japan due to their better developed army, but it was too late for them.
The Songhai expanded wherever they could, but they remained destined to be my vassal state to the end.
France and Austria never managed to kill each other completely, despite France's territorial advantage.
Four civilizations: Celts, Inca, China and Egypt coudn't stand the test of time. And I made sure to send my inquisitors to both Edinburgh and Dheli so to stomp out forever the holy cities of christianity and induism.
And with this, my story concludes.