I'd appreciate any general or specific tips/strategies on how to win at Emperor in Beyond the Sword.

Background: I could win at level above Emperor in Civ3, then Civ4 eventually I could win at Emperor although not always. So obviously I've got some skill, but apparantly not enough. BTS they seem to have improved the AI quite a bit and while at first I had some trouble at Monarch, I can now win at Monarch consistantly. Sadly I am getting crushed at Emperor, trying a few different fav Civs that I'd think would work well at that level (Persians, Ceasar). I tend to use Huge maps, fast play setting, 17 civs or so. I fall too far behind in tech, points, etc. I suppose I could search the forum for how to mod the settings at the levels and tone Emperor down a bit, but would rather not.

Seems like maybe I'd eventually get good enough as Ceasar to be brutal at cranky at Praetorians asap to exclusion of all else and maybe I'd do ok. I tend to dislike too much military action though, the game then takes too long, and I try to keep it shorter with the Quick Play setting. So the fun quotient is nice at Monarch where I can not bother with more than 1-2 military campaigns and then just coast to building a spaceship.

Was doing some browsing here, maybe I need to switch to a civ that gets both the Organized & Charismatic trait. Organized is definitely needed I think to keep costs down to keep up in tech and is one of my favorite traits at Monarch. Charismatic I haven't played much with in awhile, it gives +1 happiness, anything else? Is Napoleon the leader with Org/Charis?

Yeah, he is.
Right now I'm polishing last games on Monarch, I still cannot win Emperor game without reloading. It seems to me that Charismatic is very powerful (war-mongering+happiness), as well as Financial. But it all depends, entirely up to You and Your style. Some say that above Monarch one starts to appreciate Protective trait too :D
I've recently found how awesome leader DeGaulle is (Cha/Ind), and I'll give it a try on Emp with him soon.

And, of course, You can always take Isolated Emp Start Pericles (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=248509) to increase morale for a good start :goodjob: :lol: :king:

I've also noticed the BtS AI is much better... I was winning Emperor easily in Vanilla and Warlords, and have been struggling a little with BtS.

I tend to play more for cultural/space race victories, so I can't really give you good advice on warmongering at Emperor, but I've gotten a pretty solid Cultural victory strategy down. You mention that you don't like fighting wars (neither do I), and this strategy plays to that.

Pick a Philosophical leader who starts with Mysticism (Gandhi is my favorite), grab a couple early religions (Hinduism first; the AI usually techs to Buddhism and will beat you on Emperor) and spread them to your immediate neighbors, and focus on getting these five wonders: Pyramids, Apostolic Palace, Sistine Chapel, University of Sankore, and Spiral Minaret. That'll let you run a solid specialist economy, with each religious building adding 2 hammers, 2 beakers, 2 gold, and 5 culture on top of their base values.

Build six cities (or 9, but I find that hard to get on Emperor when the AI is expanding like crazy), and spread as many religions as you can to your cities. This will let you build 2 of each religion's cathedral for a big cultural boost.

Identify your 3 culture cities early and focus on increasing their population as much as possible, so that you can run artist specialists (Caste System helps here). Once you get to Liberalism, turn the science slider down to 0% and the cultural slider up to 100% (Spiral Minaret and your religious shrine will let you support 100% spending easily... my last game I was running +87 gold per turn at 100% culture). As a benchmark, I was generating over 700 culture per turn in those 3 cities by 1400AD in my last game (epic speed).

In all the non-culture cities, after you build the temples, spam military units. You won't be fighting any wars, but you need an army as a deterrent. Spreading religion to neighbors helps, but you'll always run into some crazy leader who wants to take you out (Isabella, Montezuma, etc). Give in to some of your more powerful neighbors' demands, and you should be safe from wars as long as you have a sizeable deterrent force.

I run the following civics: Representation (will let you maintain decent science, even at 0% slider because of specialists), Free Speech, Caste System (slavery early, and switch to CS when I move the culture slider to 100%), Mercantilism (free artist specialist in every city is great), and Pacifism (more GP points).

This strategy won't give you a record-breaking final score like some warmongering strategies, but personally I enjoy the builder playstyle a lot more. I find that this will get me an Emperor Cultural win about 80% of the time (I run into problems when I start right up against a hyper-aggressive leader who grabs an early religion, and then usually try to go on the warpath early)

Very interesting. I've never tried a cultural victory, will maybe give it a shot. I do have my doubts at being able to get those wonders on Emperor though. Also, I likely need to use different civics a bit more it sounds. To me a win is a win, I'm not much concerned with how many points I get; I tend to stop my wars from getting tired of the tediousness of it when I could keep it going for more points.

You can get those wonders if you beeline them (which you'll be doing for a cultural win anyways. I find that AP is the hardest to get consistently, but if I'm focusing on it, I can get Pyramids, Sistine Chapel, and Spiral Minaret pretty easily by going straight for their requisite techs. To get the AP, I try to lightbulb Theology using a Great Prophet (if I build Oracle or Stonehenge early, usually if I end up near stone or marble), or to go straight for it after Monotheism.

It's an unusual, counterintuitive playstyle, since you're ignoring techs that usually form the staple of early builds (Sailing, Iron Working, Alphabet, etc) and focusing religion/wonder-building techs... takes some getting used to, but I find it's a nice break from the "build a bigger stack of doom than the AI" type games.

If you've never won a cultural victory, I would really recommend just knocking one out on Prince/Monarch before you go for Emperor, just to get a feel for how it works... Always harder to learn when you're facing tough competition.

Not being used to this strategy, I don't understand what you said here.
1. how this happens in the below sentence and
2. what buildings you mean by "each religious building"

"... with each religious building adding 2 hammers, 2 beakers, 2 gold, and 5 culture on top of their base values"

Thanks for the tips! I "hid" my BTS CD from myself, getting disgusted at my thrashings at Emperor ... maybe I"ll have to "find" it again :)

Oh, another question. Would (at Emperor) a culture win work in a different manner. Use Louis XIV for his culture & his wonderbuilding, build miscellaneous wonders, and culture slider max, artist max, etc tips as applicable per the above. So not using a religious way about it.

when you build the Apostlotic Palace, Spiral Miranette, and the wonder that comes with paper, your religious buildings will give you the +2 to hammers, beakers, and commerce. some of them apply only to temples, others to monasteries. creative is more important for the decreased cost in cultural buildings as opposed to its +2 culture. the +2 helps, but isn't actually needed. There is a good thread in teh Hall of Fame forums about reaching a 1000AD cultural victory at Deity. I believe the path involves using only 1 religion, but spamming artists. don't remember that well. I've gotten several cultural wins at emperor with only 1 religion but by artist specialist spamming in 2 cities and using the artists to boost up my weakest city.