I swept the China-killing units over to attack Saladin, and at the same time gathered all newly produced troops from the home cities to start attacking Greece. Vassalage from those two would give me enough for domination, all the while leaving friendly runaway Suryavarman alone.
Ho, that's interesting. Saladin tries a religious victory, with me as the other candidate. Suryavarman is friendly towards me, and Mao my vassal must vote for me. Is that enough to just end this here?
Haha, yes. Religious (mostly backdoor domination) Victory in 1580 AD. Within about ten turns of domination, depending on how fast Greece capitulates. But 37 hours of gameplay is enough and I don't relish three more to finish that.
Not a lot of games where the GNP graph looks like that but you stay caught up in tech every step of the way. That's what all the espionage economy discounts can do.
Whew. That was a worthy scenario. Glad I played it, even in the twilight of Civ 4 and apparently with no colleagues playing to compare with. Ok, the ending wasn't special, we've done draft and cannon conquest many times. But it was satisfying to mount a successful military campaign against Deity-level unit production.