actionmedia
Chieftain
- Joined
- Apr 21, 2006
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- 63
If there is quechua rush, axeman rush, praetorian rush etc. Why not wonder rush for builders? It is also not only wonder rush but also a religion founding rush and GP rush
Short Presentation
The main idea is to build many early and midgame wonders before the AI and win your cultural victory. For higher levels, the priority wonders are The Oracle for CoL slingshot and The Pyramids for Representation civic. If you feel lucky you can try to build as second priority the Stonehenge (for early GP points) Parthenon to boost GP production, GL for research and the Sistine Chapel for extra culture points per specialists. Any other wonder has its benefits and provides extra culture and GP points, feel free to build any wonder you can.
Running specialists and adding GP as super specialists to your culture cities is very important in this strategy, thats why enabling Representation and Caste System early is very important. +3 science at the beginning of the game can make the difference.
In the end you need no more than 9 cities, 3 main, culture cities and 6 secondary cities.
If you play well the cultural victory can be achieved before 1900.
You dont need to do cottage spamming, but you may feel free to place your culture slider as high as possible to speed up the culture rate.
Long Presentation
Pregame
Map: it works on any type of map with some adaptations for archipelago. It works best on Panagea, Continents, Terra or Fractal map. The idea is to have a few neighbors to trade with. It works on small, normal, large and even huge maps. High sea level is helpful but not necessary.
Difficulty: It works fine on Prince. You need some skills to win on Monarch. Not tried on Emperor or above yet.
Speed: Up to prince level, normal speed is fine. Quick speed works better even on monarch level, I dont know why but you can beat the AI to wonders easy on quick speed.
Civ/Leader: Up to prince level this strategy works fine with any civ and any leader (random civ is fine). However some leaders are favored. Your leader should have at least one of the following traits:
- Philosophical
- Spiritual
- Industrious
Optional would be the Financial trait for the mid and late game.
Until now it seems that the best leader for this strategy is Saladin (Ph and Spi). I would recommend this leader for monarch or above.
But as I said before, if you like to play random civ and random leader, this strategy works fine with any leader.
Opponents: I dont like to pick my opponents, so this strategy works fine with any opponent. However, peaceful leaders are preferred.
Start
Starting position is important. It should be a good spot for a mixed city. No time (and no reason) for specialization in this strategy, no time to reach size 20.
The best starting position would be: Coast, river side, at least one tile with 3 food and one gold (flood plains or bonus tiles river side) inside initial border. One or 2 food bonuses, 1-2 green hills, some forests. For a really best start, you should settle on plains hill (or on a bonus tile that give you one extra hammer in the city tile, like ivory, stone, marble) even if you have to loose one turn for that. That extra hammer will payback really fast. If the plains hill has resources on it, that is even better, extra hammer or extra gold from resources is a bonus
Early Game
Scouting:
So you have settled, now send your scout or warrior to recon. You are looking for the next settling, spot this is first priority. It should be near stone or near marble (if you have stone in the proximity of your first city). If you have settled on coast or riverside, you should explore first the coast or along the river, a fast connection between your cities is very important.
Try to keep your scouting unit alive you will need it. Pick carefully the fights with the animals.
I advise to start scouting on one side of the city (North), then send your next unit to scout the other side (South).
The goodie hut is the third priority.
Once you have found the marble and the stone, stop or reduce scouting activity and concentrate on defense (active defense) and promoting units.
At Quick speed, effective scouting is more important than never. Forget about goodie huts, concentrate on busting fog 10 tiles around your city. Remember that your first city will expand borders twice before your first settler will be redy so dont bother to scout first 4-6 tiles around the city.
If you cant find marble or stone until your settler is ready and not even 3 turns after, this strategy will be very difficult to apply.
Research:
(Mysticism) > Polytheism > Masonry > Monotheism > (The Wheal/Mining) > BW/Priesthood > Writing > Alphabet.
If Mysticism is one of your starting techs or you are lucky enough to get it from a hut, you have good chances to found Hinduism. It is like 90-95% probability.
You should research priesthood before you finish the Stonehenge, but you can alternate with BW. You should research writing before you finish The Oracle for the CoL slingshot. You need the wheal to connect your resources.
Worker techs research them only if is not affecting the plan, and only if is really-really necessary. Pottery for instance is not necessary yet.
If you cant find copper, you may want to research archery to defend your cities.
Building in first city:
Warrior > settler > worker > settler > The Pyramids/warrior.
You need the first warrior for scouting and future defense. If you settle on plains hill and work a 3 food tile it would be ready in 8 turns on normal speed (5 on quick speed), same time whit your city reach size 2. Building first settler should take 17 turns (12 on quick), considering the time needed to travel, you can settle second city in about 27-30 turns from the beginning of the game
If you dont settle on plains hill, building your warrior will take 14 turns and your city will reach size 3. The settler will take 17 turns to build and. Will be able to settle 33-36 turns from the beginning. So loosing one turn at the beginning can spare you 4-6 turns later.
The second warrior should be built only in emergency.
It is easy to figure why to build the Pyramids right after the second settler. It is wonder rush. The Pyramids could require chopping, but not necessary. You need Pyramids for the Government civics. Having access to Representation early and using specialists (including GP), will early rush your tech research. You will have better chances to complete a wonder if you are first to research the tech that enables it. You have better chances to found religions if you have an early tech rush
Worker
Build quarry on stone and on marble, connect resources to capital and connect capital with other cities. Chop forests if necessary. Improve terrain
Expansion/Settling
You have to build 3 cities really fast. Then develop them and build your wonders there. Dont try to settle within 4 tiles, feel free to go even 10 tiles away from your capital if is necessary to get a resource. Your fast growing culture will fill the gaps in no time. There is a second reason to let those gaps between your cities, you will not have time to build more than 3 cities in early game, but later you will need the extra space for secondary cities. I usually settle my second city 6-8 tiles from my capital.
Your first 3 cities are those cities that have to reach legendary culture, they have to be mixed cities, like your first city, so 2-3 green hills, forests, grassland, 1-2 food bonuses would be the ideal site. But you also need to connect to marble and stone.
Let your cities grow to size 2 or 3 to increase the production output then concentrate on production. In early game you have no time to build too many food improvements it is not unusual for a city to grow slow and even stagnate at size 3. Even temporary starvation is an option to rush the production.
It is important to synchronize your settling with your tech advance. Dont finish Monotheism before you settle the second city and be sure you settle the third city before you finish The Oracle.
At higher level it may be better if you settle the second and the third city or even the first city right over the resource (marble or stone). This will save you time and help you build the wonders faster. How ever, it depends on the terrain conditions.
Building in second city:
(Stonehenge) > The Oracle > worker/warrior > warrior (archer)
If you can hook both stone and marble or if there is a good production site and you have settled on stone (plains) you have good chances to finish both, the Stonehenge and the Oracle so once you have settled start the Stonehenge, the early you build it the better. It is even better if you build it even before the AI start to build it, you dont want them to get reach. The reason you need to build The Stonehenge is especially for the early GPps. But the free obelisk is also a good thing in early game, especially if you dont have a creative leader.
If for some reason it would be too slow to build both wonders, get directly to The Oracle and forget about the Stonehenge
Your second city will be a Great Prophet Farm so is logical to build The Oracle there.
If your production is too slow, started too late, not connected to marble yet, you should consider to chop rush the Oracle.
Like the Stonehenge it gives +2 GPps (Great Prophet)
Than you will need the second worker and some defense.
Building in third city:
The Parthenon.
No time for anything else in early game. The Parthenon is an expensive wonder, the AI doesnt rush for it, your other cities are busy and so this wonder goes to city no 3. And this city will be your GA farm so it should have plenty of food around it.
Could be necessary to chop some forest to finish it before the AI, but save your chop for the moment when you have all production bonuses (marble, organized religion).
Finishing the Parthenon mark the end of early game. If you manage to do it before 300 BC you are doing well.
Religion:
If you have mysticism as your starting tech, 95% you will found Hinduism in your first city. You will research Monotheism when your 2d city is in place so Judaism will be founded there. The Oracle slingshot for CoL will found Confucianism in your 3d city if no religion has spread to that city and if that city is clean (no green or red face).
If your leader is not spiritual dont convert to any religion just yet. You dont need that.
A spiritual leader should convert to that religion that helps speed his wonder production with Organized Religion. A spiritual leader will switch between religions to speed up wonder production and for diplomacy reason. If there is no building to speedup, is better to stay in non state religion, this way all your holy cities will have +5 culture.
Civics.
If the leader is not spiritual, dont change your civics while you are building wonders, unless 1 turn of anarchy can save you at least 2 turns of wonder building.
A spiritual leader will switch the civics anytime is needed to maximize production or for other good reasons. Organized Religion is the most indicated civic in early game. Slavery could be of some help. But once is unlocked Representation (with Pyramids) and Caste System, these are the civics you will need most of the time.
Note that on normal speed, changing 2 civics at a time will need only one turn of anarchy so it would be wise to change 2 civics in one go.
Military
Not much of military action in early game. Note that at one point you will have to defend 3 cities with only 2 warriors or even 1 warrior and 1 scout. Try to promote them early and dont keep them in the cities. Let tem outside and move them constantly. If you see any barbarian, move your closest warrior toward him and meet the barbarian in the forest or better forested hills, preferably outside your border. Only if your warrior is killed (which is rare), then start training a warrior in your closest city.
Use your scout to defend against warriors, to detour the enemy or as bait until a stronger unit will be ready.
Because of religion founding and +5 culture, your city borders expand really fast, that mean faster fog busting and you can see further away from your city. This is good. It gives time for reinforcements if necessary.
Diplomacy
You want peace with AI so try to keep it this way. Dont sign open borders too early; you dont want to let the AI to see your empty cities. But dont keep your borders closed for too long. Some AIs get pissed off if they cant pass. If your state religion upsets any AI, better switch to no state or to that AI religion ASAP.
Great Peoples
You will need those and the good news is that they start to emerge really early. With a Philosophical leader, you will have your first Great Prophet really fast. The best use for it would be to add it to the city with the slowest production (usually the 3d cit) it will provide +2 hammer and +5 gold. This will permit you to run on 100% science for a long period.
You will have your second GP in early game; you can use him as you think is best. Add to city or build a shrine. Dont burn it for Meditation, but you can burn him for Theology, as soon as you get the alphabet and trade something for meditation. But it would be wise to get Theology before you settle the 4th city. You dont want to waste +5 culture for holy city and +4 from shrine in a secondary city.
Mid Game
This part still need some improvement, but is also flexible and it can be adapted to almost all kind of play. Here I will describe the how I like to play:
Research
Alphabet > Literature > Philosophy > Paper > Education > Liberalism
You need alphabet for tech trade. You have really expensive techs end you need a lot of cheap techs to grow. With Representation and Caste System, Alphabet would be ready really soon, before 1 AD. Start trading, trade expensive for cheap if you need to (this will help your diplomacy too), but try not to trade away alphabet, especially not to Mansa Musa. You want that all others be able to trade only with you. Dont forget to check for available trades sometime.
Depending on map configuration and tech trade, it is possible that you will need to research some other techs like Metal Casting or even IW. Try to get Meditation ASAP (trade for it), not only for monasteries but also to clear the path for your GP to discover Philosophy or Theology. You want to found as many religions as possible. So burn GP for at least one of those and research the other ASAP.
The free tech from liberalism should be Nationalism so be sure you get Civil Service before you finish Liberalism.
Drama is not a priority tech. You can research it later. If you fill lucky you may try to beat the AI on Music and get that free GA.
Building
As soon as your 3d city finishes the Parthenon start building library there. You will need it for the Great Library. Build GL and Sistine C. in your 3d city. Dont worry if you pollute your GA farm. You will need those GS too.
If nothing else to do, build military, workers or settlers.
In your first city you should build an archer/axeman than start building a settler. If you get Mathematics, start Aqueduct, than Hanging Gardens ASAP.
In your second city build military and settler ASAP. You need secondary cities early; later simply will be no time. Ideally you have built 1 settler in 1st city and 1 settler in 2d. After that, only buildings.
Start Chichen Iza in 2d city, not for the bonus of 25% defense but for additional culture and GPps. Angkor Wat in 2d city, also Spiral Minaret.
Build only necessary buildings. Concentrate on wonders.
If you fail building 1 or 2 wonders, no problem, at least you will have money for upgrades or even to buy buildings.
Your secondary cities should build units and temples as main priority.
Optional you can build The Colossus, Great Light House, Versailles etc.
Dont rush to build hermitage. Look for the city with the poorest culture rate and build hermitage there. The National Epic should go to the city with the smallest GPp rate but of course one of the culture cities.
Religion
Convert only if your civics require. Keep the same religion as your closest neighbors. You will flip some of their cities, so you want them to be pleased with you. Spread all your religions to all your cities. You will need it to build those cathedrals and of course for the additional money. If you did not managed to spread one of your religion to your neighbors and if there is a political mess it would be wise to keep no state religion and to switch to free religion when becomes available.
Expansion
Expand early. Settle one or 2 secondary cities before 200 AD. Than continue to expand slowly from those 2 cities.
9 cities on normal and large map are enough. You will flip some of your neighbor cities.
Let your main cities grow to the maximum limit, then assign specialists. You can alternate the production and the specialists.
Military
Keep a small but up to date military force. Build at least one of each new unit type and show it to your neighbors, a maceman, or a war elephant roaming at your borders should be enough to keep the peace. Dont build too many units, but be prepared to do so if you sniff some war.
Keep in mind that a small territory is easy to defend than a big empire. Keep your military force mobile, build roads, keep a defensive stack in the middle of your territory and be ready to move it when is needed. Build a few mounted units to counter pillagers.
Upgrading some of your units is a wise idea, no time to build new units. You can get money for upgrades from failed wonders or from map or tech trading. If some civ is willing to pay a 100 or 200 or 500 gold for a tech give it to them. This way you will get money for upgrades and improve the relations with that civ.
Civics
Representation and Caste System is the best combination for this strategy. Pacifism is good for GP production, but it requires a state religion, use it as long as it serve your purpose. I found very useful to keep non state religion until Liberalism then switch to Free Religion for tech and for happiness and only in the end of the game to switch to Pacifism to increase the GP rate. Free Speech is the most important civic and you should switch to it when it becomes available. Mercantilism vs. Free Market that is still a dilemma, but having one free specialist, could be better especially with the right civics and with Sistine Chapel.
GP
At this point you have:
1 Great Prophet Farm
1 GA/GS Farm
1 GE Farm
And 1 or 2 secondary GP farms that can pop up 1, 2 or 3 GP by the end of the game. Because it is a specialist game it would be wise to distribute your GPP evenly to all your specialist cities. In this fashion you will have guarantied from 20 to 25 GP per game or even more. But more important you will have them fast, really fast. The idea is to get those GP before 1900 AD..
The GE Farm will probably emerge 1 or 2 GE before Liberalism. I usually burn the first one to get metal casting and the second to build Taj Mahal, is like golden age with only one GP. It is a useful golden age if you have other wonders in queue or just started to build other wonders. In my last game I just built Hagia Sophia in the same period as the golden age, traded something fot engineering and start building it.
If there is no better use, add to city, add them to your main cities, they act as specialists and that means +3 science, +2 culture with Sistine Chapel in addition to its usual contribution.
Build Shrines and Academies in your main cities of course.
For the great artists, just try to estimate which way is the best, adding to city as super specialist or make culture bomb. On normal speed a culture bomb is 4000 culture. A GA provides +12 culture per turn that mean 334 turns to make over 4000 culture, but with Sistine Chapel there is +14 culture meaning only 286 turns and with a single cathedral that mean only 191 turns to reach 4000 culture, with 4 cathedrals in that city the GA super specialist need only 96 turns to make over 4000 culture. This is where you need to use some mathematics.
Worker
Because is a specialists based strategy it is important to build food improvements. Also you will need some production so, building some mines is a good idea. 4 or 5 workers should be enough to keep up with the expansion of your empire.
Finish
The finish is easy. The hardest part is at the beginning. At the end is not much to worry about. Just keep building your culture buildings (temples, monasteries, theatres, national wonders) and military keep spreading your religion. Try to avoid the research of Scientific Method until you build monasteries for all the religions in all your 3 culture cities.
Delay the research for Chemistry until you have nothing else to research.
Which to research first from Scientific Method or Chemistry is always a dilemma but you should decide according to the conditions. Scientific Method unlocks Biology and increases the numbers of the specialists available. You can research both up to 1 turn to finish than decide which one to be first.
In the late game, the best use for a GA would be the culture Bomb, I mean if you have only 50 turns to go, then a culture bomb in one of the cities with the smallest culture rate would be a good idea.
In the end of the game, the best civics combination should be: Representation + Free Speech + Caste System + Mercantilism + Pacifism.
There are not many wonders to build except for the Statue of Liberty that gives you +1 free specialist.
With the proper civics, biology, Statue of Liberty and Sistine Chapel, with the culture slider at 100% or at least 80% or 90%, with 4-5 religions in your boundaries and cathedrals for each religion in each culture city, the culture cities will produce each about 600 to 800 culture per turn or even more. This should happen when each of the culture cities have reached at least a half of the legendary culture. So it would take 30 to 50 turns to finish at normal speed and 15 to 20 turns on quick speed.
That's it! Have fun!
Short Presentation
The main idea is to build many early and midgame wonders before the AI and win your cultural victory. For higher levels, the priority wonders are The Oracle for CoL slingshot and The Pyramids for Representation civic. If you feel lucky you can try to build as second priority the Stonehenge (for early GP points) Parthenon to boost GP production, GL for research and the Sistine Chapel for extra culture points per specialists. Any other wonder has its benefits and provides extra culture and GP points, feel free to build any wonder you can.
Running specialists and adding GP as super specialists to your culture cities is very important in this strategy, thats why enabling Representation and Caste System early is very important. +3 science at the beginning of the game can make the difference.
In the end you need no more than 9 cities, 3 main, culture cities and 6 secondary cities.
If you play well the cultural victory can be achieved before 1900.
You dont need to do cottage spamming, but you may feel free to place your culture slider as high as possible to speed up the culture rate.
Long Presentation
Pregame
Map: it works on any type of map with some adaptations for archipelago. It works best on Panagea, Continents, Terra or Fractal map. The idea is to have a few neighbors to trade with. It works on small, normal, large and even huge maps. High sea level is helpful but not necessary.
Difficulty: It works fine on Prince. You need some skills to win on Monarch. Not tried on Emperor or above yet.
Speed: Up to prince level, normal speed is fine. Quick speed works better even on monarch level, I dont know why but you can beat the AI to wonders easy on quick speed.
Civ/Leader: Up to prince level this strategy works fine with any civ and any leader (random civ is fine). However some leaders are favored. Your leader should have at least one of the following traits:
- Philosophical
- Spiritual
- Industrious
Optional would be the Financial trait for the mid and late game.
Until now it seems that the best leader for this strategy is Saladin (Ph and Spi). I would recommend this leader for monarch or above.
But as I said before, if you like to play random civ and random leader, this strategy works fine with any leader.
Opponents: I dont like to pick my opponents, so this strategy works fine with any opponent. However, peaceful leaders are preferred.
Start
Starting position is important. It should be a good spot for a mixed city. No time (and no reason) for specialization in this strategy, no time to reach size 20.
The best starting position would be: Coast, river side, at least one tile with 3 food and one gold (flood plains or bonus tiles river side) inside initial border. One or 2 food bonuses, 1-2 green hills, some forests. For a really best start, you should settle on plains hill (or on a bonus tile that give you one extra hammer in the city tile, like ivory, stone, marble) even if you have to loose one turn for that. That extra hammer will payback really fast. If the plains hill has resources on it, that is even better, extra hammer or extra gold from resources is a bonus
Early Game
Scouting:
So you have settled, now send your scout or warrior to recon. You are looking for the next settling, spot this is first priority. It should be near stone or near marble (if you have stone in the proximity of your first city). If you have settled on coast or riverside, you should explore first the coast or along the river, a fast connection between your cities is very important.
Try to keep your scouting unit alive you will need it. Pick carefully the fights with the animals.
I advise to start scouting on one side of the city (North), then send your next unit to scout the other side (South).
The goodie hut is the third priority.
Once you have found the marble and the stone, stop or reduce scouting activity and concentrate on defense (active defense) and promoting units.
At Quick speed, effective scouting is more important than never. Forget about goodie huts, concentrate on busting fog 10 tiles around your city. Remember that your first city will expand borders twice before your first settler will be redy so dont bother to scout first 4-6 tiles around the city.
If you cant find marble or stone until your settler is ready and not even 3 turns after, this strategy will be very difficult to apply.
Research:
(Mysticism) > Polytheism > Masonry > Monotheism > (The Wheal/Mining) > BW/Priesthood > Writing > Alphabet.
If Mysticism is one of your starting techs or you are lucky enough to get it from a hut, you have good chances to found Hinduism. It is like 90-95% probability.
You should research priesthood before you finish the Stonehenge, but you can alternate with BW. You should research writing before you finish The Oracle for the CoL slingshot. You need the wheal to connect your resources.
Worker techs research them only if is not affecting the plan, and only if is really-really necessary. Pottery for instance is not necessary yet.
If you cant find copper, you may want to research archery to defend your cities.
Building in first city:
Warrior > settler > worker > settler > The Pyramids/warrior.
You need the first warrior for scouting and future defense. If you settle on plains hill and work a 3 food tile it would be ready in 8 turns on normal speed (5 on quick speed), same time whit your city reach size 2. Building first settler should take 17 turns (12 on quick), considering the time needed to travel, you can settle second city in about 27-30 turns from the beginning of the game
If you dont settle on plains hill, building your warrior will take 14 turns and your city will reach size 3. The settler will take 17 turns to build and. Will be able to settle 33-36 turns from the beginning. So loosing one turn at the beginning can spare you 4-6 turns later.
The second warrior should be built only in emergency.
It is easy to figure why to build the Pyramids right after the second settler. It is wonder rush. The Pyramids could require chopping, but not necessary. You need Pyramids for the Government civics. Having access to Representation early and using specialists (including GP), will early rush your tech research. You will have better chances to complete a wonder if you are first to research the tech that enables it. You have better chances to found religions if you have an early tech rush
Worker
Build quarry on stone and on marble, connect resources to capital and connect capital with other cities. Chop forests if necessary. Improve terrain
Expansion/Settling
You have to build 3 cities really fast. Then develop them and build your wonders there. Dont try to settle within 4 tiles, feel free to go even 10 tiles away from your capital if is necessary to get a resource. Your fast growing culture will fill the gaps in no time. There is a second reason to let those gaps between your cities, you will not have time to build more than 3 cities in early game, but later you will need the extra space for secondary cities. I usually settle my second city 6-8 tiles from my capital.
Your first 3 cities are those cities that have to reach legendary culture, they have to be mixed cities, like your first city, so 2-3 green hills, forests, grassland, 1-2 food bonuses would be the ideal site. But you also need to connect to marble and stone.
Let your cities grow to size 2 or 3 to increase the production output then concentrate on production. In early game you have no time to build too many food improvements it is not unusual for a city to grow slow and even stagnate at size 3. Even temporary starvation is an option to rush the production.
It is important to synchronize your settling with your tech advance. Dont finish Monotheism before you settle the second city and be sure you settle the third city before you finish The Oracle.
At higher level it may be better if you settle the second and the third city or even the first city right over the resource (marble or stone). This will save you time and help you build the wonders faster. How ever, it depends on the terrain conditions.
Building in second city:
(Stonehenge) > The Oracle > worker/warrior > warrior (archer)
If you can hook both stone and marble or if there is a good production site and you have settled on stone (plains) you have good chances to finish both, the Stonehenge and the Oracle so once you have settled start the Stonehenge, the early you build it the better. It is even better if you build it even before the AI start to build it, you dont want them to get reach. The reason you need to build The Stonehenge is especially for the early GPps. But the free obelisk is also a good thing in early game, especially if you dont have a creative leader.
If for some reason it would be too slow to build both wonders, get directly to The Oracle and forget about the Stonehenge
Your second city will be a Great Prophet Farm so is logical to build The Oracle there.
If your production is too slow, started too late, not connected to marble yet, you should consider to chop rush the Oracle.
Like the Stonehenge it gives +2 GPps (Great Prophet)
Than you will need the second worker and some defense.
Building in third city:
The Parthenon.
No time for anything else in early game. The Parthenon is an expensive wonder, the AI doesnt rush for it, your other cities are busy and so this wonder goes to city no 3. And this city will be your GA farm so it should have plenty of food around it.
Could be necessary to chop some forest to finish it before the AI, but save your chop for the moment when you have all production bonuses (marble, organized religion).
Finishing the Parthenon mark the end of early game. If you manage to do it before 300 BC you are doing well.
Religion:
If you have mysticism as your starting tech, 95% you will found Hinduism in your first city. You will research Monotheism when your 2d city is in place so Judaism will be founded there. The Oracle slingshot for CoL will found Confucianism in your 3d city if no religion has spread to that city and if that city is clean (no green or red face).
If your leader is not spiritual dont convert to any religion just yet. You dont need that.
A spiritual leader should convert to that religion that helps speed his wonder production with Organized Religion. A spiritual leader will switch between religions to speed up wonder production and for diplomacy reason. If there is no building to speedup, is better to stay in non state religion, this way all your holy cities will have +5 culture.
Civics.
If the leader is not spiritual, dont change your civics while you are building wonders, unless 1 turn of anarchy can save you at least 2 turns of wonder building.
A spiritual leader will switch the civics anytime is needed to maximize production or for other good reasons. Organized Religion is the most indicated civic in early game. Slavery could be of some help. But once is unlocked Representation (with Pyramids) and Caste System, these are the civics you will need most of the time.
Note that on normal speed, changing 2 civics at a time will need only one turn of anarchy so it would be wise to change 2 civics in one go.
Military
Not much of military action in early game. Note that at one point you will have to defend 3 cities with only 2 warriors or even 1 warrior and 1 scout. Try to promote them early and dont keep them in the cities. Let tem outside and move them constantly. If you see any barbarian, move your closest warrior toward him and meet the barbarian in the forest or better forested hills, preferably outside your border. Only if your warrior is killed (which is rare), then start training a warrior in your closest city.
Use your scout to defend against warriors, to detour the enemy or as bait until a stronger unit will be ready.
Because of religion founding and +5 culture, your city borders expand really fast, that mean faster fog busting and you can see further away from your city. This is good. It gives time for reinforcements if necessary.
Diplomacy
You want peace with AI so try to keep it this way. Dont sign open borders too early; you dont want to let the AI to see your empty cities. But dont keep your borders closed for too long. Some AIs get pissed off if they cant pass. If your state religion upsets any AI, better switch to no state or to that AI religion ASAP.
Great Peoples
You will need those and the good news is that they start to emerge really early. With a Philosophical leader, you will have your first Great Prophet really fast. The best use for it would be to add it to the city with the slowest production (usually the 3d cit) it will provide +2 hammer and +5 gold. This will permit you to run on 100% science for a long period.
You will have your second GP in early game; you can use him as you think is best. Add to city or build a shrine. Dont burn it for Meditation, but you can burn him for Theology, as soon as you get the alphabet and trade something for meditation. But it would be wise to get Theology before you settle the 4th city. You dont want to waste +5 culture for holy city and +4 from shrine in a secondary city.
Mid Game
This part still need some improvement, but is also flexible and it can be adapted to almost all kind of play. Here I will describe the how I like to play:
Research
Alphabet > Literature > Philosophy > Paper > Education > Liberalism
You need alphabet for tech trade. You have really expensive techs end you need a lot of cheap techs to grow. With Representation and Caste System, Alphabet would be ready really soon, before 1 AD. Start trading, trade expensive for cheap if you need to (this will help your diplomacy too), but try not to trade away alphabet, especially not to Mansa Musa. You want that all others be able to trade only with you. Dont forget to check for available trades sometime.
Depending on map configuration and tech trade, it is possible that you will need to research some other techs like Metal Casting or even IW. Try to get Meditation ASAP (trade for it), not only for monasteries but also to clear the path for your GP to discover Philosophy or Theology. You want to found as many religions as possible. So burn GP for at least one of those and research the other ASAP.
The free tech from liberalism should be Nationalism so be sure you get Civil Service before you finish Liberalism.
Drama is not a priority tech. You can research it later. If you fill lucky you may try to beat the AI on Music and get that free GA.
Building
As soon as your 3d city finishes the Parthenon start building library there. You will need it for the Great Library. Build GL and Sistine C. in your 3d city. Dont worry if you pollute your GA farm. You will need those GS too.
If nothing else to do, build military, workers or settlers.
In your first city you should build an archer/axeman than start building a settler. If you get Mathematics, start Aqueduct, than Hanging Gardens ASAP.
In your second city build military and settler ASAP. You need secondary cities early; later simply will be no time. Ideally you have built 1 settler in 1st city and 1 settler in 2d. After that, only buildings.
Start Chichen Iza in 2d city, not for the bonus of 25% defense but for additional culture and GPps. Angkor Wat in 2d city, also Spiral Minaret.
Build only necessary buildings. Concentrate on wonders.
If you fail building 1 or 2 wonders, no problem, at least you will have money for upgrades or even to buy buildings.
Your secondary cities should build units and temples as main priority.
Optional you can build The Colossus, Great Light House, Versailles etc.
Dont rush to build hermitage. Look for the city with the poorest culture rate and build hermitage there. The National Epic should go to the city with the smallest GPp rate but of course one of the culture cities.
Religion
Convert only if your civics require. Keep the same religion as your closest neighbors. You will flip some of their cities, so you want them to be pleased with you. Spread all your religions to all your cities. You will need it to build those cathedrals and of course for the additional money. If you did not managed to spread one of your religion to your neighbors and if there is a political mess it would be wise to keep no state religion and to switch to free religion when becomes available.
Expansion
Expand early. Settle one or 2 secondary cities before 200 AD. Than continue to expand slowly from those 2 cities.
9 cities on normal and large map are enough. You will flip some of your neighbor cities.
Let your main cities grow to the maximum limit, then assign specialists. You can alternate the production and the specialists.
Military
Keep a small but up to date military force. Build at least one of each new unit type and show it to your neighbors, a maceman, or a war elephant roaming at your borders should be enough to keep the peace. Dont build too many units, but be prepared to do so if you sniff some war.
Keep in mind that a small territory is easy to defend than a big empire. Keep your military force mobile, build roads, keep a defensive stack in the middle of your territory and be ready to move it when is needed. Build a few mounted units to counter pillagers.
Upgrading some of your units is a wise idea, no time to build new units. You can get money for upgrades from failed wonders or from map or tech trading. If some civ is willing to pay a 100 or 200 or 500 gold for a tech give it to them. This way you will get money for upgrades and improve the relations with that civ.
Civics
Representation and Caste System is the best combination for this strategy. Pacifism is good for GP production, but it requires a state religion, use it as long as it serve your purpose. I found very useful to keep non state religion until Liberalism then switch to Free Religion for tech and for happiness and only in the end of the game to switch to Pacifism to increase the GP rate. Free Speech is the most important civic and you should switch to it when it becomes available. Mercantilism vs. Free Market that is still a dilemma, but having one free specialist, could be better especially with the right civics and with Sistine Chapel.
GP
At this point you have:
1 Great Prophet Farm
1 GA/GS Farm
1 GE Farm
And 1 or 2 secondary GP farms that can pop up 1, 2 or 3 GP by the end of the game. Because it is a specialist game it would be wise to distribute your GPP evenly to all your specialist cities. In this fashion you will have guarantied from 20 to 25 GP per game or even more. But more important you will have them fast, really fast. The idea is to get those GP before 1900 AD..
The GE Farm will probably emerge 1 or 2 GE before Liberalism. I usually burn the first one to get metal casting and the second to build Taj Mahal, is like golden age with only one GP. It is a useful golden age if you have other wonders in queue or just started to build other wonders. In my last game I just built Hagia Sophia in the same period as the golden age, traded something fot engineering and start building it.
If there is no better use, add to city, add them to your main cities, they act as specialists and that means +3 science, +2 culture with Sistine Chapel in addition to its usual contribution.
Build Shrines and Academies in your main cities of course.
For the great artists, just try to estimate which way is the best, adding to city as super specialist or make culture bomb. On normal speed a culture bomb is 4000 culture. A GA provides +12 culture per turn that mean 334 turns to make over 4000 culture, but with Sistine Chapel there is +14 culture meaning only 286 turns and with a single cathedral that mean only 191 turns to reach 4000 culture, with 4 cathedrals in that city the GA super specialist need only 96 turns to make over 4000 culture. This is where you need to use some mathematics.
Worker
Because is a specialists based strategy it is important to build food improvements. Also you will need some production so, building some mines is a good idea. 4 or 5 workers should be enough to keep up with the expansion of your empire.
Finish
The finish is easy. The hardest part is at the beginning. At the end is not much to worry about. Just keep building your culture buildings (temples, monasteries, theatres, national wonders) and military keep spreading your religion. Try to avoid the research of Scientific Method until you build monasteries for all the religions in all your 3 culture cities.
Delay the research for Chemistry until you have nothing else to research.
Which to research first from Scientific Method or Chemistry is always a dilemma but you should decide according to the conditions. Scientific Method unlocks Biology and increases the numbers of the specialists available. You can research both up to 1 turn to finish than decide which one to be first.
In the late game, the best use for a GA would be the culture Bomb, I mean if you have only 50 turns to go, then a culture bomb in one of the cities with the smallest culture rate would be a good idea.
In the end of the game, the best civics combination should be: Representation + Free Speech + Caste System + Mercantilism + Pacifism.
There are not many wonders to build except for the Statue of Liberty that gives you +1 free specialist.
With the proper civics, biology, Statue of Liberty and Sistine Chapel, with the culture slider at 100% or at least 80% or 90%, with 4-5 religions in your boundaries and cathedrals for each religion in each culture city, the culture cities will produce each about 600 to 800 culture per turn or even more. This should happen when each of the culture cities have reached at least a half of the legendary culture. So it would take 30 to 50 turns to finish at normal speed and 15 to 20 turns on quick speed.
That's it! Have fun!