pigswill said:
Time for contention. In my limited experience geography is at least as important as traits or UUs in determining strategy and victory. You know you'll be starting on a continent and that's it. Could be a small continent to yourself, could be a giant continent with four other civs. You could start with alex,monte, togukawa and HC or start with Gandhi and MM. You could start in desert/plains, in a jungle or tasty grassland covered in cows and wheat. All of these have a huge impact on how you play.
Pre-game you can start with intentions based on traits and UU but you can't really start with a strategy. You probably need to play up to 1000BC or so before you can really decide on victory conditions.
Definitely, and that's how I prefer to play.
Usually, though, on a continents map, I draw 3-4 neighbours, and at least one of them is a jerk I have to dispose of at some point. So I tend to find that strategy and the victory pursuit depends not only on the map, but the geographical placement of my continental rivals.
In the Mao game, I remember we were all hyped to pursue a cultural victory. But the flies in the ointment there were (1) the shape of the continent and especially (2) Monty's location on it. If Montezuma had been next door to me instead of Catherine, I probably would have axe-rushed him and then could have settled back for a cultural win, given how I was pumping GP and wonders like mad and would have had both marble and stone at that point. Instead, I had to go through Catherine first and was then facing Monty in the medieval era. You do NOT want Monty next door if you're going for cultural, so that VC was abandoned.
With so many potential neighbours on a continents map, you usually draw a few dangerous opponents. In the Qin game, I had Caesar and Huayna--not psychos, but "slow burns" who can be problematic by mid-to-end game, especially if you're weak. In the Hatty game, I had Caesar and everyone's favourite religious fanatic, Isabella. Ironically, I think the ALC game where I had the best chance at a cultural win was when I played as Monty!
Play as a psycho and you reduce your chances of running into one. Something to remember when I play as Alexander and Isabella.
Long story short, pigswill is right. Let's see the shape of the map and the identity and location of the neighbours before I finalize a strategy.
To address some other points:
- Voek--yes, I'm trying to improve, but the success of these threads has made me aware that several other people are using them to do that too. Killroyan's post is but one piece of evidence in that regard. You make a very valid point about different strategies as you move up the levels, so I hope everyone using these threads as learning tools remembers that. Many of my tactics, strategies, and gambits will NOT work on Emperor, or even Monarch! Fortunately, there are lots of other threads dealing with strategies for the higher levels.
- Wonders: do remember that wonders are fun. It's a little mini-victory all on its own when you complete one.
On Emperor, I would imagine you have to settle for a similar feeling if you capture a wonder, since it's unlikely that you'll build them. 
- Cabert--interesting that you should mention trades. In the Elizabeth warm-up game I played part of last night, my main tech trading partner was Caesar (I'd used a GP to pop CoL and founded Confucianism, which spread to him and he converted, so we were getting along all right). However, due to my single-minded pursuit of the Rifling tech path, by the time I got Alphabet NONE of the other civs had any of my primary techs to trade. They only had the secondary/optional ones. And by trading my primary techs to Caesar, I was allowing him to keep a couple of steps behind me and guaranteeing that he would be a much more dangerous opponent when I finally got Redcoats. So if I go the Redcoat-beeline route, I will have to very carefully consider each tech trade. I'm tempted to forgo them altogether.
Finally, I realize everyone is chomping at the bit, but I'm afraid you'll have to wait until I get home to my Civ computer before I can start the game and begin posting the game thread.
Patience is a virtue. There are many rocks in the field.
