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On the easier difficulties, if you have the gold, you can beat any civ, no matter how large, in about 10 turns, I've found out. Take over a few cities, including one close to their capital, ask for peace, and try paying them something around 16K for all their cities. (If you can make 1K+ per turn with something like 8.0.2), then move to attack the capital as soon as possible. Wait one or two turns, and they will have moved most of their army out of the capital, leaving behind one or two defenders. If you can get there soon enough, you can take their capital easily, getting your money back, and defeating the civ, removing their armies from the map. I've been able to pull this multiple times in one game vs. Regent AI, so I wouldn't imagine that they learn very quickly from this.
on the other hand, if they have a settler out there somewhere, you're screwed, as you've just unleased their entire army into the region of their (ex)capital, and probably don't have any defense in the cities you just bought, so you most likely have the entire world against you, as that civ just bribed everyone into a military alliance against you.
on the other hand, if they have a settler out there somewhere, you're screwed, as you've just unleased their entire army into the region of their (ex)capital, and probably don't have any defense in the cities you just bought, so you most likely have the entire world against you, as that civ just bribed everyone into a military alliance against you.