TheGrandWazoo
Warlord
I got to the point of winning about 9/10 games on emperor, and now win about 5/10 immortal and 2/10 deity, always on random settings.
Strategy obviously changes on map type, but there are key things to do.
You can win with any civ, as long as you play to their strengths. Whoever you play, citizens mean more science, so get more citizens, i.e. focus on growing your cities. A key thing to do on higher levels is micromanage. It isn't as important as previous civ games but you still benefit from getting that growth 1 turn earlier by tinkering, or timing moves between eras to coincide with new social policies, etc.
A giant help when moving up, at least for me, was to make sure I looked at each city screen every turn. If you miss out on growth by one food, it is worth taking off a production tile for food, as you'll get that production anyway when you grow.
Don't get buildings you don't need yet, as they cost gold per turn. Sell buildings if you don't want them anymore. Sell buildings in cities you are razing - make sure you don't waste gold, as you'll need it to ally city states, buy key buildings or bribe civs.
Strategy obviously changes on map type, but there are key things to do.
You can win with any civ, as long as you play to their strengths. Whoever you play, citizens mean more science, so get more citizens, i.e. focus on growing your cities. A key thing to do on higher levels is micromanage. It isn't as important as previous civ games but you still benefit from getting that growth 1 turn earlier by tinkering, or timing moves between eras to coincide with new social policies, etc.
A giant help when moving up, at least for me, was to make sure I looked at each city screen every turn. If you miss out on growth by one food, it is worth taking off a production tile for food, as you'll get that production anyway when you grow.
Don't get buildings you don't need yet, as they cost gold per turn. Sell buildings if you don't want them anymore. Sell buildings in cities you are razing - make sure you don't waste gold, as you'll need it to ally city states, buy key buildings or bribe civs.