Working victory strategies -input needed

[Maerchen]

As I now played some months, it seems as there are three major strategies that lead to victory:

A) Conquest: Have more and better troops, conquer the minors and destroy the majors that oppose you. This works on all maps and with all neighbors.

B) City spam: As I recently learned in Dampfnudels thread, you can city spam your way to victory, every 5/6 hex or so a city and a zone. I did not try this, but seems to work. I need some input when this is viable and when not and what leads to victory, the amount of population or the access to good early BP production.

C) Diplomacy: It is quite easy to make peace with minors, Offer Protection to get them as protectorates and buffer zones, and play Unification when you establish borders with them. You can outplay the majors on the diplomatic floor, too, it is just not as easy as with the minors. This works best when you have many minor farmer/raider zones with cities and a capable foreign affairs guy, a spymaster helps getting the recon 1 to get diplomacy work.

What works for you? Anything I missed?

-Maerchen

[Maerchen]

*bump* Any ideas?