Sweden Strategy

[JanghanHong]

This works extremely well when you gift your early great people to militaristic city states, beeline to metallurgy for Hakka's and then to riflemen. Upgrade all units and have fun.
With cathedrals (religious belief, extra artist specialist slot) and early amphitheatres you can generate quite a few great artists very early in the game for gifting.

Basically go Tradition -> 4 cities -> as many friendships as possible -> get artists -> gift to militaristic city states -> upgrade and destroy everyone in renaissance

This is fun to the point of tear-inducing elegance when the militaristic states you befriend from the beginning of the game are giving out Jaguars, Samurai, Minutemen, Berserker, Jannisary, and Tercio that all retain their promotions upon upgrading to Caroleans that make them essentially exponential unique units.



I don't care what physicists say about thermodynamics. perpetual motion is achieved in the warboots of a Janissary that upgrades into a Carolean.

 

[Seabastian Civ]

...a Janissary that upgrades into a Carolean.

Holy moly. That is incredible...

 

[kirbdog]

Winning a diplomatic victory is easy when youre rich! Sweden doesnt have any real advantage here, since with enough cash flow you can buy 90 influence for a mere ~2000 gold.

Sweden can generate great scientists faster than most civs.

Gold savings can translate into more cities founded with rushed science buildings, for more beakers per turn, which also means more science when bulbing great scientists.

Getting to build the UN faster is the biggest constraint on winning diplomatic victory faster.

Of course many civs have other advantages!

 

[Tatzelworm]

Sweden is definitely my favourite civ.
I tend to go for a cultural victory, as the great generals and admirals gained either from defensive wars or city states after completing Patronage can be used to ally with cultural city states, and being far from the equator can let you stay away from some of the worst warmongers (ie Shaka).
It helps if Genghis Khan is in the game, as he is easy to get defensive pacts with for if someone declares war on you. The UUs can also give you some elbow room if there's no handy Mongol horde on your map.
With religion, I find that the cultural shrines pantheon (ancestor worship?) works well with cathedrals and "defender of the faith", and the "to the glory of God" reformation belief gives you as many great people as you could ever wish for.
For civic trees, I do Liberty, then Patronage and Aesthetics (at the same time), then, if I haven't got an ideology yet, Piety. I tend to have huge empires, so will go for either Freedom or Order.
By the time Caroleons start appearing, I often have garrisons in all my cities. This quite often means I could consider a Domination victory by this point, if Piety was substituted by Honour, and there isn't a massive Greek or German sitting next to me. Sorry this was so long.