Hey everyone, I just started playing Civ4 and so far I havent really been that good at waging war so Im hoping for a Space Age Victory in most of my games. I start off pretty well but towards the late game i always fall behind most civilizations. Does anyone have any tips or strategies to get the quickest space age victory?

Does anyone have any tips or strategies to get the quickest space age victory?

Get better at waging war.... Seriously, that's your best bet; the space victory calls for a lot of beakers, which means a large economic base - lots of land. The earlier you manage to get that land, the more profit you harvest from it.

The space victory is a long research marathon, followed by a short production sprint. So when faced with a choice of short term payoff versus long term payoff, you'll usually take the latter. In choices between production and research, you'll usually take the latter (work the cottage instead of the mine).

When waging war, is it best to start war production early and start taking land early or should I wait until later in the game to declare war?

Cottages!!

When waging war, is it best to start war production early and start taking land early or should I wait until later in the game to declare war?
Why not do both? As VoU said, space race benefits most from a large empire to provide the research and the production required--and from having a big army to deter anybody from interfering. A large land base also increases the chances that you'll have aluminum somewhere within your borders.

Just understand that war strategy and especially tactics change as the game goes on. In an early rush, you're mostly going to focus on producing overwhelming amounts of one unit. Later in the game, you'll need a more varied stack.

I'm a big fan of the early rush provided the map allows for it. The article I wrote on the topic might help.