Justinian is a leader I rarely see talked about or used in games. I really like his "flavor", for lack of a better term. However my starts with him always seem quite slow and I never see the game through.

The traits, I like. I'm a fan of Spiritual for obvious reasons, and I don't mind Imperialistic as much as most people do. What I don't like are the starting techs. The Wheel doesn't lead directly to anything good; and on Emperor an early religion is very unlikely, making Mysticism of dubious value as a starting tech. Hence the slow start.

I've tended to build Stonehenge after the Settler, with the intention of bulbing Theology. However, investing hammers into Stonehenge seems to set me back too much.

Obviously strategies depend on the map and your opponents, but does anyone actually like using Justinian? Any leader-specific strategies or tips?

With no Farm resources I go Agriculture, AH, Mining, BW, pottery, writing, alpha, currency, asthetics, trade for Poly, Literature, Drama, Hippoderm + 10%. The plan is to cottage spam then take Nationalism with Liberalism and draft + whip + push culture slider up and repeat. I think its +20 Happiness @ 40% culture with Hippodrems and Colosseums.

On Emperor I woudn't know :-D
But generally I say play as most imperialistic leaders do :
Build GW and rexx the heck away
Spiritual will help you with cheap temples for culture and border pops
Beeline to guilds and own the world with Cataphracts.
Cottage spamming is good.

REX like mad, REX like mad!

Imperialistic leaders shine on starts that would be horrible for most others (few usable resources): If you can can start off with 4 hammers (possibly by settling on a plains hills), settler first is a viable opening; 2 simultaneous workers can follow once there's something useful for them to do.

I'm also fond of whipping settlers and using workers to stifle growth at the end of a cycle when at my happy cap; this generally makes the best use of IMP.

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Justinian is quite suited for medieval war; Cataphracts are a nice goody at the end of the military medieval tech tree and hippodromes should keep any amount of war happiness manageable... shame they are all over the tech tree.

Unfortunately, playing nice until you can go to town with a monopoly on Renaissance units is often the cleaner strategy. If you make Liberalism a priority, cuirassiers might be available as early as knights and the tech path has a better synergy with fast-paced mounted warfare (nationhood and jails for espionage).

I see Byzantium's Uniques as giving you options instead of being a straightforward gain. Both require a resource I don't want to depend on and the starting techs don't really excite me either, so on the whole I consider it one of the weaker civs.

The only time I use their UU is after Liberalism and I have already conquered huge amounts of land from drafting. Like Iranon has said, the tech tree is all over the place so you have to make a decision. Beeline for the UU or beeline for Liberalism.

Liberalism is easily the best decision because with Nationalism plus the UB you can draft and whip better than any other Leader in the entire game and produce an obscene amount of units.

Get all the commerce you can early. Coastal seafood > ocean seafood und su weiter.

I'm with you as to your like of Justinian. I like to aim straight for Horse Archers + Barracks + Stables and attack the closest civ. I give the HA's the flanking 2 promotion and the first great general I generate becomes my super-medic to heal my stack. I play on Monarch. If you're lucky you get a religious civ that settles next to you.

I am not a fan of medieval warfare, but from midgame on Justinian is a very strong warmongerer, especially given his ability to seriously negate WW with the UB.

I'm playing him now (Warlord difficulty, only) and REXed - it seems to be working so far...

from midgame on Justinian is a very strong warmongerer

The more I analyze him the more this seems to sum it up. I'm just not used to medieval warmongering.

I feel ya, dude. I have played a few games with Just (im an emperor player) and have never done well with him. Now...my super promoted cataphracts were actually winning battles against enemy riflemen....yes...riflemen....but you can see why it wasn't going well.

edited to save myself embarrassment