thanks! this actually sounds like it could work
It has many times for me.
how many archers or archer armies do you usually keep in a city when its a a strategic necessary?
I almost never build defensive armies at all. It's best to just give your opponent something to kill, then counter. If you run out of horsemen or they are too far away, use legions. For defenses, just a unit in the city (an archer or warrior) to prevent drop-offs is sufficient for most cases. Use scouts so you have a few turns to prepare for whatever is coming. Watch your seaways and fortify on chokepoints. You don't want heavy defenses in a city most of the time because then if the city gets a GA flip, you can't take it back.
why 70 trade? is there a reason or is this just what works for you?
The reason is that 70 + 1.5 (for Democracy) = 105, which is the minimum amount of science you have to be producing per turn to jump up to Industrialization with only the Banking prerequisite. The other prerequisite for Industrialization is Steam Power, which is a great tech to get, but it's more important to get to Industrialization and Advanced Flight first. You can pick up Steam whenever you like. You want Industrialization asap because of the 5 gold per city per turn first-to-research bonus.
You should have at least 10 cities at this point, probably more, so that adds up to a lot of gold. It's useful in rushing Oxford, if you don't have a Great Builder. I failed to mention the other thing you want to do here is settle a production city early on. Set it to build an expensive wonder. Go all production in the city unless you have really strong growth there. Just putting it on three trees for 6 production per turn is fine. Once you hit University, you switch it to Oxford University and you'll keep all that production and save a ton of gold. If that city has been at it for, say, 15 turns, that's 90 production. Oxford costs 150, so you're nearly there. This tactic is invaluable and reminds me of experiences in the IT world ("build me something, I'll tell you what it is later").
when you switch to democracy and start getting techs again do you attempt to expand still or do you 100% focus on tech?
I usually try to expand a bit more, but obviously the focus is off expansion. You don't really want to be at just exactly 105 tech because that could cost you turns if you lose a city somehow or even if somebody just moves a galley onto one of your trade tiles.
Do you build a lot of pikemen when you reach democracy?
No. Typically I have bombers so soon after that, there's no need for defenses. 2 turns for Banking. Now Industrialization if I have a scientist. If I don't then it'll take longer and more pikes will be necessary. 2 turns for University.
Maybe a couple more turns to build up gold to rush Oxford. So you can see I might have Advanced Flight as few as four turns after switching to Democracy. At this point my opponent may be headed my way with some extremely expensive knight armies. One 27 attack bomber will fix that problem real fast. Most players quit when seeing a single bomber (especially before 500 AD).
What would you do if someone beats you to oxford university?
Now that's tricky. Did I get Industrialization first? If so, I might still be okay. There's a video series on Youtube in which this exact thing happens (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amS5rlD30Y4). Getting the money techs is crucial. If I fail to get Oxford, I run straight at Corporation. Having both of these usually will result in the win. If my opponent has bombers it's tougher. Sometimes you can find and take a weak city and grab Advanced Flight. More often it's just tough unless you can tech up to Flight very quickly. There's no defense against bombers other than fighters which is why this strategy works so well.
thanks again, I'm sure this will help me refine my strategy.
No problem. If you are on xbox feel free to add me "El Thrasher". Also this forum is kind of dead for CivRev. There's a lot more discussion over at
http://forums.2kgames.com/forumdisplay.php?39-Civilization-Revolution-General-Discussion. Also we run tournaments and stuff. You should join up.