I have found my own way to avoid the dreaded mid to late game tedium and am curious to know if any other players play "god" like I do.
My strategy is simple. I seek out the other civs to determine how powerful they are. I then assist the weak and manufacture the dismantling of the strong. I do this by building cities in places where I really don't want them. I save the weak underdog (usually one or two cities away from extinction.) I set up MPP's and Military Alliances in such a way to guarantee that the strong will soon be at war with me and allies. At that point, I "liberate" the cities of my protected civs, returning them to the original controller. (I wish the diplomacy model allowed for alliances in which the cities could really be liberated. Imagine the fun you could have reviving the German people after the French had thought they had exterminated them
.)
At some point, I get back to the serious business of winning but the rush from the power-brokering is fun.
