(I posted this in the Strategy forum, so if this is inappropriate for this forum, please simply delete it.)
The objective of this guide is to give good, essential information without prescribing an EXACT formula for what to do at any given time. You can use this for any game type, any world type, any size map, etc. Again, this is mostly essential or easily-overlooked information that can make-or-break a game.
4 POINT GUIDE TO VICTORY.
1. CITY PLACEMENT AND MANAGEMENT.
Be aware of this pattern:
(A) DO NOT OVERLAP. If you fear a city may grow too fast, don't worry, that's what the slavery/nationalism civic is for. Build the National Epic and cater to farming/commerce.
(B) KNOW YOUR RESOURCES AND SPECIALIZE CITIES. By far the best bonuses are health bonuses because it allows your cities to grow bigger than they could otherwise, thus support more specialists. Be sure your city will work a resource, even if it means an otherwise undesirable location. Some resources add $$, that is your commerce-specialized city. Don't sweat anything but commerce buildings and merchant specialists. Have Bronze/Iron and stone/marble nearby? Try to settle a city that can work both, but make sure it will also have the food to support, coastal squares are helpful for food with lighthouse. Hello Hammer City! Have Great People Prophets join this city.
(C) MAKE A STAR. Probably the most crucial aspect of the game. Cities in a 'star' formation or ring around the capital will have, at worst, at -5 upkeep without a courthouse. If your start location prohibits this because of coastline, well, get ready for a big challenge!
(D) SQUISH YOUR OPPONENTS BORDERS. They'd do the same to you! This gives you a good reason to make a culture-specialized city. You might not get a conversion, but you will have an easy means to stage a war from the border of this city. Don't bother squishing their capital unless you intend to take it. It will squish you.
2. RELIGION.
(A) FOUNDING. If you found an early religion, spread it to peaceful or weaker neighbors to discourage war. This allows you to minimally protect bordering cities with this neighbor. Free Religion is a great civic for making friends.
(B) CONVERTING. If you don't found, convert to the relgion of the peaceful or otherwise weaker neighbor. This is especially difficult if they never spread it to your civ. Be patient. Consider Taoism or Islam later for the eventual commerce bonus. If you have an aggressive neighbor, or powerful neighbor, don't bother converting to their religion. You will simply have to take them out.
(C) RELIGIOUS WONDER. If you get the special wonder for a founded religion, have a city dedicated to churning out missionaries and spreading it absolutely everywhere. +1 gold for every city with it. Make the city with this wonder a commerce specialized city.
3. WAR.
(A) KNOW THE BIGGEST THREATS. An aggressive or likely-to-win-the-game neighbor (Mansu, Asoka, somebody with lots of land) should be your first target for war, and it should take place prior to Machinary. Don't bother with the little guys, as easy as they are to take out. War is just too time consuming to be pointless. It goes without saying, don't invade Civs that are not bordering you.
(B) KNOW YOUR COMBAT ODDS. Catapults are essential to evening the odds. It is easy to know what you will go up against before the war. Before you've even decided/found out who you will fight, give every unit City Raider upgrades. If you are growing a big army you shouldn't have to worry about being invaded yourself. Once you know your opponents units, you may find you do not want a diversified army after all. Going against Archers/Bowmen? Upgrade against arrow units. Melee units? Upgrade vs. Melee and remember that axemen are better than just about every other unit against melee for their era. Opponent has horses? Can you pillage them easily? Otherwise, spearmen. Pillaging is mostly pointless.
(C) STACK UNITS. Never fight multiple fronts until you've clearly anihilated your enemy. Stack stack stack!
(D) KNOW WHERE TO BEGIN. Sometimes the easy-pickin's cities are not best. Cripple your opponent by taking their capital first, then clean up the little cities. If the city has too much border with another Civ, or will overlap your own, consider destroying it. Stage your attacks from forest, if beside a city. Never have to cross a river to attack a city. Attack fast! A good time to begin, if you are cautious, is right after they discover Iron Working because they will still need 8 turns to get their Iron resource, or to at least start building such units.
(E) KNOW WHEN TO DECLARE PEACE. Cripple an opponent down to 1-3 cities to prevent them from thinking about future retaliation, which is just annoying. With 1-3 cities they can operate as a pretty nice buffer to other invasionary forces. Make sure you leave cities forming a buffer! Give them resources and techs that will allow them to defend their tiny empire. Convince them to stop trading with aggressive Civs. Aggressive neighbors will usually destroy themselves and be non-factor by late in the game.
4. VICTORY TYPE.
(A) CONQUEST. If you build or take a city with the Pyramids, consider a conquest victory. You may have to rush (Universal Sufferage) courthouses, otherwise you'll stick with Police State the whole game. Commit to this Victory type totally, there may be no going back, and no reason to slow down. After Cavalry, your priority is Communism and State Property, military wonders. Otherwise just build military units. Know what civs you will have to take and which can remain in order to give you 65% land. Enlist others in your war effort against those you need for victory.
(B) SPACE RACE. If there are only a few Civs as tech leaders and/or they are not trading techs, the Space Race could be out of reach, don't let this catch you off guard, you could lose a Time Victory. Don't be too eager to get to Rocketry. You will need a powered factory before you even begin the Apollo Project. Take your time and consider Environmentalism for the health bonus. You'll need it anyway. Iron Works is essential, as is turning farms/cities to workshops and Windmills to mines.
(C) CULTURE. Forget about it unless Creative, determined, and sucessful at building ALL the culture wonders. Know that a culture victory comes VERY late in the game, most likley. Using the culture slider essentially destroys your odds at a Space Race Victory.
(D) DIPLOMACY. If your conquest or culture victory fell short and you'd just rather not win the Space Race, which you can easily do with a large empire and proper city specializing, consider rushing the UN. You'll have the lion's share of votes. You can then bribe other CIVs into voting for you, but your biggest opponent will just vote for themselves. It's a tough victory.
_____
Enjoy and post your feedback!
The objective of this guide is to give good, essential information without prescribing an EXACT formula for what to do at any given time. You can use this for any game type, any world type, any size map, etc. Again, this is mostly essential or easily-overlooked information that can make-or-break a game.
4 POINT GUIDE TO VICTORY.
1. CITY PLACEMENT AND MANAGEMENT.
Be aware of this pattern:
Code:
XXX
XXXXX
XXXXX
XXXXX
XXX(A) DO NOT OVERLAP. If you fear a city may grow too fast, don't worry, that's what the slavery/nationalism civic is for. Build the National Epic and cater to farming/commerce.
(B) KNOW YOUR RESOURCES AND SPECIALIZE CITIES. By far the best bonuses are health bonuses because it allows your cities to grow bigger than they could otherwise, thus support more specialists. Be sure your city will work a resource, even if it means an otherwise undesirable location. Some resources add $$, that is your commerce-specialized city. Don't sweat anything but commerce buildings and merchant specialists. Have Bronze/Iron and stone/marble nearby? Try to settle a city that can work both, but make sure it will also have the food to support, coastal squares are helpful for food with lighthouse. Hello Hammer City! Have Great People Prophets join this city.
(C) MAKE A STAR. Probably the most crucial aspect of the game. Cities in a 'star' formation or ring around the capital will have, at worst, at -5 upkeep without a courthouse. If your start location prohibits this because of coastline, well, get ready for a big challenge!
(D) SQUISH YOUR OPPONENTS BORDERS. They'd do the same to you! This gives you a good reason to make a culture-specialized city. You might not get a conversion, but you will have an easy means to stage a war from the border of this city. Don't bother squishing their capital unless you intend to take it. It will squish you.
2. RELIGION.
(A) FOUNDING. If you found an early religion, spread it to peaceful or weaker neighbors to discourage war. This allows you to minimally protect bordering cities with this neighbor. Free Religion is a great civic for making friends.
(B) CONVERTING. If you don't found, convert to the relgion of the peaceful or otherwise weaker neighbor. This is especially difficult if they never spread it to your civ. Be patient. Consider Taoism or Islam later for the eventual commerce bonus. If you have an aggressive neighbor, or powerful neighbor, don't bother converting to their religion. You will simply have to take them out.
(C) RELIGIOUS WONDER. If you get the special wonder for a founded religion, have a city dedicated to churning out missionaries and spreading it absolutely everywhere. +1 gold for every city with it. Make the city with this wonder a commerce specialized city.
3. WAR.
(A) KNOW THE BIGGEST THREATS. An aggressive or likely-to-win-the-game neighbor (Mansu, Asoka, somebody with lots of land) should be your first target for war, and it should take place prior to Machinary. Don't bother with the little guys, as easy as they are to take out. War is just too time consuming to be pointless. It goes without saying, don't invade Civs that are not bordering you.
(B) KNOW YOUR COMBAT ODDS. Catapults are essential to evening the odds. It is easy to know what you will go up against before the war. Before you've even decided/found out who you will fight, give every unit City Raider upgrades. If you are growing a big army you shouldn't have to worry about being invaded yourself. Once you know your opponents units, you may find you do not want a diversified army after all. Going against Archers/Bowmen? Upgrade against arrow units. Melee units? Upgrade vs. Melee and remember that axemen are better than just about every other unit against melee for their era. Opponent has horses? Can you pillage them easily? Otherwise, spearmen. Pillaging is mostly pointless.
(C) STACK UNITS. Never fight multiple fronts until you've clearly anihilated your enemy. Stack stack stack!
(D) KNOW WHERE TO BEGIN. Sometimes the easy-pickin's cities are not best. Cripple your opponent by taking their capital first, then clean up the little cities. If the city has too much border with another Civ, or will overlap your own, consider destroying it. Stage your attacks from forest, if beside a city. Never have to cross a river to attack a city. Attack fast! A good time to begin, if you are cautious, is right after they discover Iron Working because they will still need 8 turns to get their Iron resource, or to at least start building such units.
(E) KNOW WHEN TO DECLARE PEACE. Cripple an opponent down to 1-3 cities to prevent them from thinking about future retaliation, which is just annoying. With 1-3 cities they can operate as a pretty nice buffer to other invasionary forces. Make sure you leave cities forming a buffer! Give them resources and techs that will allow them to defend their tiny empire. Convince them to stop trading with aggressive Civs. Aggressive neighbors will usually destroy themselves and be non-factor by late in the game.
4. VICTORY TYPE.
(A) CONQUEST. If you build or take a city with the Pyramids, consider a conquest victory. You may have to rush (Universal Sufferage) courthouses, otherwise you'll stick with Police State the whole game. Commit to this Victory type totally, there may be no going back, and no reason to slow down. After Cavalry, your priority is Communism and State Property, military wonders. Otherwise just build military units. Know what civs you will have to take and which can remain in order to give you 65% land. Enlist others in your war effort against those you need for victory.
(B) SPACE RACE. If there are only a few Civs as tech leaders and/or they are not trading techs, the Space Race could be out of reach, don't let this catch you off guard, you could lose a Time Victory. Don't be too eager to get to Rocketry. You will need a powered factory before you even begin the Apollo Project. Take your time and consider Environmentalism for the health bonus. You'll need it anyway. Iron Works is essential, as is turning farms/cities to workshops and Windmills to mines.
(C) CULTURE. Forget about it unless Creative, determined, and sucessful at building ALL the culture wonders. Know that a culture victory comes VERY late in the game, most likley. Using the culture slider essentially destroys your odds at a Space Race Victory.
(D) DIPLOMACY. If your conquest or culture victory fell short and you'd just rather not win the Space Race, which you can easily do with a large empire and proper city specializing, consider rushing the UN. You'll have the lion's share of votes. You can then bribe other CIVs into voting for you, but your biggest opponent will just vote for themselves. It's a tough victory.
_____
Enjoy and post your feedback!
The best buffer is made through bribes... make your neighbors busy so they don't even bother looking at you. 
