Like most everyone else, I went diplo, mainly because I just came down off a sid level 3otM and didn't want to stress myself with this game, and it seemed like the easiest VC to shoot for.
I started off just playing randomly, and kind of lucked into getting an early NC, as well as Stonehenge, Glib (Civil Service) and Oracle (something useless). I felt like I should capitalise on this sciencey start, but I was also thinking of doing some war, so went on to research all the way down to dynamite. But gradually I cooled on the conquest idea, as a firm circle of friendship developed between me, Liz, Abe, Harun and Ram. I was also on good terms with Monty, although he wasn't strictly in the gang. This all seemed so novel for a civ game, that I didn't want to break it up. Alex and Oda were on the outside, Alex warring with Liz from time to time, and Oda falling prey to a twin-pronged attack from Monty and me, late in the game. 4 frigates, 2 rifles and 1 artillery were more than enough to take his entire industrial-era empire: I reckon attacking from the sea is much easier than by land, for several reasons. I wish I'd done a bit more of it...
I was pretty poor throughout the game (spending a lot on RAs, which I don't normally do), always making sure to sell my spare ivories. Meanwhile, Alex was buying up all the city states, so I had a bit of a panic at the end of the game. And as usual I got confused over how the UN works. I built it in one turn
with an engineer, and then went around borrowing cash off everyone so I could hire enough states (I only had 3-4 allies throughout the game). Only once I had hired 6-7 more did I remember that I would have to wait 10 turns for the vote. Doh. Alex spent the next 9 turns buying them all back again, while my economy went nowhere due to my huge loan repayments, despite being in GA. So, another round of borrowing, for ever-more extortionate rates, ensued in the
real turn before the vote. But in the end it was comfortably enough, and I won the vote 14-4.