When I play the one player game, or solo, I play on the Emperor level. For me I've come to view the Civ not as merely some game to blow off steam and waste time, but rather an exercise in attention to detail, strategic focus on short term and long term planning, and so on and so forth. Maybe that is why I've been able to get to the Emperor level at this point.

Anyways, I would like to start some advanced level discussion to see how others who might be at this level or higher deal with the challenges that come with it.

Wonders and Religion

I'll start with the Wonders and Religion, as both involve some kind of race to get a singularity. They are two sides of the same coin. My basic attitude for this is to sacrifice as much as possible. It is essential at the higher levels if you want to get anywhere. I also find it difficult to get any Wonders or Religion at this level of play, but it can be done.

For the Wonder, that means sacrificing everything you possibly can for production. If your city has to starve nearly to the point of reduction, so be it. If your science lags for a couple of turns to get the wonder built faster, that is the price you have to pay. Of course you want your city to be maxed out in size, relative to the situation, to maximize production, but once you get there, cut the reins and go full steam ahead. I've been burned one too many time, missing a wonder but 1 to 5 turns because I did not make the necessary adjustments to maximize production. And even if you do everything possible and still just miss it by a couple of turns, you still get a whole lotta gold. I don't know about higher levels, but I have found it IS possible to get wonders on the Emperor level.

As for the Religion, the same sacrifices you make for production, you instead make for commerce as it relates to science. Of course, you have to make a realistic assessment to whether or not you have a shot at the Religion, because if you do not, all the squeezing of scientific potential in the world is not going to make a difference, but if you think you have a shot, go for it. You don't want to miss that religion by one turn do you? For some of the earlier wonders, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, there is not much you can do, maybe move your workers around to tiles with commerce from those that are lacking, but for the later religions, Confucianism, Taoism, Christianity, Islam, the Science specialist is your best friend. Make sure you have access to the specialist, and use it to your fullest potential.

And if you don't end up with a religion, the game is not over. If you can keep yourself in the game long enough to merit serious endgame consideration, you should be able to make a serious push at one or two of the corporations to compensate for the lack of religion and set yourself up nicely for that final push.

I'm curious to hear what others might have to say about playing at the Emperor level and above.

I think it is a huge mistake to found an early religion on your own on emperor level. You are just too vulnerable early on on the higher levels to not make friends based on their religion. It is also easier to pick your friends by choosing their religion...

Also, I have found it is not even hard to build the early wonders at all (on emperor level). I have never failed to get the mids, gw or even glh if I actually go for it. The AI usually takes forever to build the mids.... I never build the oracle though, but that's because I don't go for religious techs (I can always trade them for aest etc.)

Speaking at marathon speed,

1) Wonders: Are not that hard to get although it is more difficult to hog them up. In a recent emperor game I played as Hammurabi and chariot rushed Saladin, built Stonehenge (NO stone), and established several cities to block off my other rival Churchill.

My views on early wonders @ Marathon

Stonehenge: fairly easy

Oracle: Difficult as you need three techs that are not food/economy/military. Doable if industrious, easy marble access, or start with mysticism AND food/mining.

Pyramids: Tough without stone, but attainable with. You need NOT have to start it until you have a few other productive cities going.

Great Wall: Always worth chopping, especially if in a vulnerable spot (Land-locked).

Great Lighthouse: Tough due to no resource speeding it up, requires a lighthouse, and requires a coastal city (less prudction sites in general).

Temple of Artimetis: I find this a chore to get even at lower difficulties as the AI loves it probably too much.

All the other wonders can be cracked easy enough by beelining certain techs the AI generally does not favor early (Aesthetics, Literature, Theology, Metal Casting etc, Code of Laws...)

Also at emperor level, missing a wonder is NOT catastrophy as you get quite a bit of gold which supports your early research which is very important at Emperor. Once the empire is established and larger than most AIs, there is no real AI advantage I have found (the difficulty is getting to a larger size.)

2) Religions: A rather difficult choice and I have found it too easy to lose early religions. On standard map size, you have 6 competitors and you either need all to not start with mysticism or to target meditation. So a safe bet is to tech Polytheism if you attempt that. Also founding an early religion is no great help unless you are severely limited in happiness or have a realiztic chance of popping an early Prophet by hitting an early wonder (Stonehenge, Oracle, ToA), have a Prophet helping UB (Egypt or Arabia), or Philosphical and can use a temple's Priest to get one quickly. Finally, I may attempt an early religion if I have 2 separate 1 commerce tiles I can use (usually floodplains).

The later religions are better (Confuscianism, christianity, Taoism) as getting there first gives you other advantages (first to courthouses, first crack at the AP or theocracy civic, a head start on liberalism race).

I find at emperor, what's more important with religions is to use them for diplomacy which means founding them are less important. Shrines can sometimes be difficult to force out the Prophet and sometimes can hurt the economy by delaying powerful Great Scientists.

Also religions are less important for creative (fast border pops) or charismatic leaders (extra happiness). You will eventually get them, but not needed to seek them out.

^agree with the assessments on how tough it is to build some wonders. Also on the take on religions.

Just to clear something up, being able to build wonders is not essential to win on immortal/deity. Founding a religion is often (not always) a waste of valuable time. Those resources around your cities will probably be worked later which is very costly.

It's maybe a matter of preference but I rarely go for wonders or religions.

My style of play on Emperor is not very well suited to build wonders. I'd rather say it's based around letting others build wonders for me :p

I never head for early religions as I'm bound to miss out on them and end up with research better put into worker techs or military techs. The only reason for me to actively shoot for one of the later religions is if I'm on a continent which missed out on the early religions, and even then it's only Confu/Tao because I neglect the religious branch of the tech tree beyond monotheism. Religion is, if anything, more a diplomatic tool than a goal on itself.