Updated to V2.1 – condensed and build order timing made more specific, thanks to everyone who provided feedback
This is a strategy to get a deity level domination victory using one city. It’s designed to not need any special resources or any world wonders. It makes use of a “permanent alliance slingshot” to enable domination. There are no blatant exploits used and no specific map size or number of opponents are required, however it is easier if you use more than the default number of opponents recommended for a given map size – the more cities any one AI controls the more obscene their research and production will be. A small map with 18 opponents is recommended for your first attempt, if you haven’t beaten deity before or if you havent played a one city challenge before. Note that this strategy will allow a space or diplo victory, however to achieve either you will almost certainly need military superiority to distract (read: beat down) the AI, hence the main focus is on a domination win.
Overview of the strategy
1. Survival phase. No worker or initial land improvements. Period from 4000bc-1ad will typically be one continuous defensive war. The goal during this phase will be to focus on tech, using a trick or two to keep tech parity, while surviving and leveling a unit up to unlock heroic epic and wespoint
2. Infrastructure phase. Tech parity with the AI will be lost around 1ad, and the focus shifted to infrastructure development including land and national wonders until 1400ad (epic).
3. Offensive phase. A PA will be obtained around 1400-1500AD (epic), recovering tech parity. At this point the “national wonder multiplied” production ability of OCC will be leveraged to churn out high xp units and flatten the AI before they pull too far ahead again
Map settings
-Map - Pangea - We want brutal. No girly hiding across the ocean for us. More to the point with only one city we wont be able to construct boats unless we start on the coast.
-Allow permanent alliances checked – this is the one ‘non-default’ setting used
-One city challenge checked
-No cheating checked
-No reloading, ever (this game is going to involve 293802938 fights, and you'll go nuts even trying to reload)
-Speed - I like epic, so your dates may vary if you prefer other
Start location
We're only going to have one city, so one ice tile and a beaver isnt going to work. A reasonable start location would be something like 3 hills, 4 forests, 3 good food tiles (can be floodplains). Notice this isnt much to ask for - i'd say that's a fairly typical start - just avoid the really poor ones. If regenerating maps offends you then be prepared to walk before settling (actually, run, don’t walk)
The ‘ideal’ location
1. All other things being equal you want as much food as possible. Forget about happiness resources, food resources are much more valuable.
2. Build on a hill. This is not optional. Typically you will fight outnumbered and often out-teched - you will need the hill defense bonus. If it’s by freshwater even better of course
3. Coast is fine if you meet the above 3 hill/4 forest production requirement - there is a definite advantage in having some of your food unpillagable by land forces and vice versa
Leader selection
Saladin (spi/phi) would be my first choice at diety. Philosphical because we're going to have a lot of specialists working throughout the game, and spiritual because it's so flexible, allowing civics to be optimized for production & science bursts which will be alternated. (if using philosophical, look carefully at what each early GP can discover, and (more importantly) what you could trade it for. Likely your second GS can discover philosophy at a point where no-one has it. With some quick trading you can probably get almost every known tech in exchange for it, often 100+ turns of research in one hit. Any other leader will likely work however you may want to tweak the strategy to leverage their strengths and be prepared to be behind on tech.
Land improvement
1. This is going to sound radical, but you don’t need a worker much before 1ad (more specifically when you get feudalism), and you sure don’t want to chop any trees. Trees are un-pillageable production. They slow enemy horses & tanks down, and give you health bonuses (health will be your limiting growth factor for 95% of the game) Three hills and 4 forests (assume we built on one hill, so really 2 production hills) will be enough to pump out a modern unit every turn, once optimized. If you cant resist the urge to make a worker before then don’t ever automate him - or he'll plant girly cottages over your fine manly trees before you know it
2. Dont develop tiles at all unless they have a resource on them (ie dont even put a road there). Ideally we want trees everywhere in the fat cross, and any development will stop them growing on empty tiles. Ditto, avoid the temptation of chopping forests on hills to build mines, as the AI loves to pillage, bomb, sabotage and generally destroy your land – you don’t want to have to park a SAM on every tile later – it’s bad enough trying to guard the 3-4 resource tiles you’ll probably have
3. Feel free to develop sea food resources
World Wonders
On deity this refers to you wondering how the f*ck the AI can build them so fast. You can sometimes go all out and get one, but you’ll cripple yourself too badly in other areas by doing so. However, if you're below 100% science feel free to put some hammers into each wonder as it becomes available, then use that cash to keep science at 100%
Build and Research Order
Our first goal is to build a library as early as possible, however we need to take a specific route to get there:
Build a barracks
Research hunting, research archery (co-ordinate to finish on same turn as barracks ideally)
Build 3 archers (We cant afford the gamble of going for bronze or iron working before the first attacks start, so archery is the only safe bet. We want to be attacked, as we need to level some units to unlock heroic epic & westpoint – doing so before any land is developed and AI armies are still small is optimal. 3 archers will get you attacked with a good chance of surviving, 4 or more tends to delay attacks and increase the odds of the AI waiting till it has swordsmen. Better to let them attack right away and sue for peace once the swords arrive than have to survive 10-15 turns of getting your butt kicked. Pre building an extra archer (stop production with 1 turn remaining and leave in queue) adds some insurance.
Give your archers city defense 1 and fortify them in the city (don’t move them out for any reason – we’re defending only at this point). Next promotions are city defense 2 & 3 then hill defense 1 & 2 as that bonus stacks. Send your initial warrior out to scout – his goal is to make contact with every civ before he dies, if possible.
When you start building your archers research animal husbandry, then writing. If you have sea food resources then go fishing, pottery, writing instead (little slower this route but not much)
After the archers are completed if you have remaining turns before writing is complete then depending on your judgment of the situation either build more archers, scouts, or workboats. If you are unsure, or have nothing else useful to build then build archers. Try not to exceed your free unit cap though, we cant afford to drop science yet
Secondary goals during this phase:
Get food production up high enough to support 2 scientists as soon as library is done.
Make a scout and try to map as much as possible. Soon we will need to know who borders who, who has what strategic resources and where. Also hopefully we will be one of the first to research paper - which is often some easy gold for selling our map to civs who are missing areas. If your immediate neighbors are all at war with you and you cant get a scout out don’t worry too much though – just a bonus if you can.
You next goal is to research alphabet as early as possible and build some GP points (equally critical). This boils down to keeping 2 scientist specialists working for the next x turns, uninterrupted.
It’s likely you will be under attack for most of this time, and your production will be low. You can still build a few useful things, but try to avoid removing those scientists unless a real emergency occurs. Use judgment to build replacement archers, walls, obelisk, granary, lighthouse, harbor etc – whichever you need the most.
Secondary goals
Get open borders with everyone
Finish scouting all the land and consider deleting scout in favor of +1 archer
Start deciding who you want to make a PA with later, and agree to absolutely everything this AI asks of you (see later section for details) – having any red items on your relationship with this civ will make things harder/more expensive later. Ideally you want someone a long distance away, ideally with a religion you have access to, and ideally who likes a civic which isnt too useless (incase you need to switch to it to boost relations later) - if you look up the civolpedia entry for a leader it says which civic is their favorite
Once you get alphabet start trading as much as you can. Any trade puts you better off than when you started it. Plan ahead though, you cant trade bronze working till 1 turn after mining, iron working till 1 turn after bronze etc - so dont trade your assets away too cheaply on the first round.
All other things being equal, trade with the most backward nations first (want everyone close together in score, and want the latest techs from the lead researchers not the old techs from them). You ideally want to plan 5-10 trades ahead. Think of it as a game within a game – your goal is collect every tech, even though some appear initially un-obtainable
Leave your scientist specialists in place and research drama next. Monarchy will be a tempting alternative but has a much lower trade value as every AI will have it by the time you do, whereas drama (which you want early for globe theatre anyway) is much easier to trade for other techs.
When you get your first great scientist build an academy
Once you finish drama and have your first Great Scientist then drop your scientist specialists for a while to focus on production (build a theatre and the globe theatre unless you need something else more urgently - globe allows a lot of whipping in emergencies)
Back fill any buildings which will give a noticeable benefit and raise your population to the max happiness cap (ready for caste system when we’ll switch everything back to science shortly)
If you get monarchy before you've built the globe theatre then switch to hereditary rule for the extra happiness
Keep pop maxed to the limits available. Depending on how many trees and food you may need an aqueduct, granary etc – build what you need most. Dont stress too much about health cap though - it's not nearly as damaging as happiness cap, which is why our main goal is to get the globe theatre up asap
Note that once you build the globe theatre you can trade away all your luxury resources for health resources ideally, or sell them to the highest bidder if not (2 gold a turn is still better than nothing) – you have no more happiness worries at this point, and your pop is limited solely by health and food
Next you want to research code of laws and then civil service (caste system/bureaucracy are both very powerful in an occ)
Once you get feudalism (likely via trade, as all AI will have it before you) pay to upgrade an archer to a longbow – the AI will sniff around you but the sight of a longbow seems to make them much less likely to attack any time soon. Congratulations, you’ve survived phase 1, and can now relax on research somewhat and catch up on infrastructure
Consider building a worker or three at this point and start improving your land (don’t chop any trees in the fat cross). Keep some gold on hand for emergency upgrades of more archers to longbows if possible
Once you get code of laws max your scientist specialists and research civil service (bureaucracy) as soon as possible
A mini-pattern now exists for a while
1) Do a science burst (caste system+representation+pacifism*) and use your (hopefully already maxed) population as scientists (don’t be afraid of temporary starvation if it saves a turn) to discover things
2) Trade techs for gold/other techs whenever profitable
3) Do a production burst (org religion* for buildings, theocracy* for units) whenever you have something valuable to build (slightly subjective depending on exact situation – a forge is a good generic first item if in doubt).
*Need to turn on a religion to use these – don’t do so if it will annoy too many people. Religions start wars faster than anything else – if in doubt, avoid them.
Research (or trade) order
Paper (nb, trade/sell your map to anyone who wants it)
Education (for University and Oxford university – build both as soon as available)
Liberalism (free religion for tech bonus when not using a religious multiplier)
Astronomy (build observatory asap)
Scientific method (see own and enemy oil - strategically critical)
Communism (to ensure PA is available asap)
All of these have a decent trade value. The main tech you want to trade for is military tradition (westpoint and defensive pacts) which should be easy via this list
Build monastries when you get a religion
Build heroic epic once unlocked (see if anyone will trade you marble for something)
If your borders are being squashed (eg small map/18) then hermitage may become a priority
Possibly build more workers, if you have a lot of good tiles unimproved – feel free to chop outside of the fat cross (but try to wait till producing something with a bonus such as heroic epic with marble). Once the AI gets spies you will want enough workers to build your best land improvement in one turn. For example on epic speed if you have oil then you will want 6 workers so you can rebuild your well ‘instantly’, so you are never without oil. You’ll find that stacking 20 military units on the tile isn’t enough to prevent the AI spies taking it out every other turn
Build Ironworks once available
Switch to environmentalism as soon as available
Build hospital and red cross when available
Build pentagon if available (often your first world wonder but not guaranteed)
Things to ignore - temples, market, grocer (unless you have those goods which give +health), bank, courthouse. Obviously create military units throughout as needed to replace casualties but avoid exceeding your free troop limit unless a situation is really looking grim
You may or may not get to the end of this list before you get your PA, and switch to offense, so some notes on key concepts may be useful at this point:
Politics
This is where the game will be won or lost at deity. It’s the one area where you can compete with the AI.
Decisions which demand you side with Civ A or Civ B
-“declare war on x”
Only ever agree to a war if it's your PA target who's asking
-“stop trading with x”
This boils down to knowing who you want to keep happy. You literally want to write down a pecking order of who you least want to annoy, working downwards to folks you don’t care about annoying, and then use it to accept/deny every request based on siding with the higher person on your list - consistency is key here.
Decisions where an AI just wants something
-give us tech x
-give us 100 gold
-give us resource z
-convert to civic x
-convert to religion y
These are an easy way to increase relations and are typically worth agreeing to. The one exception to this is if they ask for an expensive tech (unless its your PA target civ asking). If you agree to supply a resource be aware you can cancel it after 10 turns, and often charge them for it at that point
If you do refuse to give a tech then its often worth seeing if the civ has something to trade for it. This wont salvage the politics, but it does alert you to a potential tech trade
Tech trading
When you get to the later techs there can be some advantage to holding them back. Until 1000ad or so though just trade anything you can with anyone who will - they're all so cheap that an AI who wants them will have them before you know it.
Once you get currency or paper dont be afraid to trade techs for cash whenever you need it, and maps if you havent got around to making a scout yet. Often by selling a tech cheaply for whatever gold a few civs have you can get enough to trade the tech and gold to an advanced civ for another tech
Dont expect a fair deal from the AI. They'll want to rip you off on each trade offering say a 1200 beaker tech for a 1800 beaker tech. This is a huge plus in your favor, as it severely limits how much they trade amongst themselves. You can trade a tech to Civ-A and contrary to popular opinion he wont give it to Civ-B until Civ-B can offer fair value for it. Meanwhile you can trade it to 5 civs taking a loss on each deal but adding up to a large net gain. Note however that sometimes you can get them to increase their offer fairly significantly or at least throw in their map and any cash they have. In the early game ultimately you want to take whatever deal they offer - because you'll hopefully get 5 other deals for the same tech, and often some deals from the techs you got in trade. Note you want to avoid techs which the AI beelines for - as they will have no trade value
Religion
First dont even think about founding one. Second, the benefits of +1 happiness is worthless. The only real advantages then are org religion (+25% building, theocracy (+2 unit xp) and pacifism (+100% gpp). None of these are worth starting a war over. So, 80%+ of the time you dont want any state religion except in the very rare scenario where the whole world has the same religion
Typically you will find half the world is Buddhist, and the other half is Hindu. In this scenario, you want to have no state religion. If someone asks you to switch to a religion then feel free to do so - it's a free and easy +1 to relations (just make sure to switch back as soon as available). If you like micromanaging then perhaps consider switching to Buddhism when trading with Buddhist civs and vice versa with Hindu ones a few turns later - personally I haven’t resorted to doing this, except when it comes to starting wars or making defensive pacts or PA's
This is a strategy to get a deity level domination victory using one city. It’s designed to not need any special resources or any world wonders. It makes use of a “permanent alliance slingshot” to enable domination. There are no blatant exploits used and no specific map size or number of opponents are required, however it is easier if you use more than the default number of opponents recommended for a given map size – the more cities any one AI controls the more obscene their research and production will be. A small map with 18 opponents is recommended for your first attempt, if you haven’t beaten deity before or if you havent played a one city challenge before. Note that this strategy will allow a space or diplo victory, however to achieve either you will almost certainly need military superiority to distract (read: beat down) the AI, hence the main focus is on a domination win.
Overview of the strategy
1. Survival phase. No worker or initial land improvements. Period from 4000bc-1ad will typically be one continuous defensive war. The goal during this phase will be to focus on tech, using a trick or two to keep tech parity, while surviving and leveling a unit up to unlock heroic epic and wespoint
2. Infrastructure phase. Tech parity with the AI will be lost around 1ad, and the focus shifted to infrastructure development including land and national wonders until 1400ad (epic).
3. Offensive phase. A PA will be obtained around 1400-1500AD (epic), recovering tech parity. At this point the “national wonder multiplied” production ability of OCC will be leveraged to churn out high xp units and flatten the AI before they pull too far ahead again
Map settings
-Map - Pangea - We want brutal. No girly hiding across the ocean for us. More to the point with only one city we wont be able to construct boats unless we start on the coast.
-Allow permanent alliances checked – this is the one ‘non-default’ setting used
-One city challenge checked
-No cheating checked
-No reloading, ever (this game is going to involve 293802938 fights, and you'll go nuts even trying to reload)
-Speed - I like epic, so your dates may vary if you prefer other
Start location
We're only going to have one city, so one ice tile and a beaver isnt going to work. A reasonable start location would be something like 3 hills, 4 forests, 3 good food tiles (can be floodplains). Notice this isnt much to ask for - i'd say that's a fairly typical start - just avoid the really poor ones. If regenerating maps offends you then be prepared to walk before settling (actually, run, don’t walk)
The ‘ideal’ location
1. All other things being equal you want as much food as possible. Forget about happiness resources, food resources are much more valuable.
2. Build on a hill. This is not optional. Typically you will fight outnumbered and often out-teched - you will need the hill defense bonus. If it’s by freshwater even better of course
3. Coast is fine if you meet the above 3 hill/4 forest production requirement - there is a definite advantage in having some of your food unpillagable by land forces and vice versa
Leader selection
Saladin (spi/phi) would be my first choice at diety. Philosphical because we're going to have a lot of specialists working throughout the game, and spiritual because it's so flexible, allowing civics to be optimized for production & science bursts which will be alternated. (if using philosophical, look carefully at what each early GP can discover, and (more importantly) what you could trade it for. Likely your second GS can discover philosophy at a point where no-one has it. With some quick trading you can probably get almost every known tech in exchange for it, often 100+ turns of research in one hit. Any other leader will likely work however you may want to tweak the strategy to leverage their strengths and be prepared to be behind on tech.
Land improvement
1. This is going to sound radical, but you don’t need a worker much before 1ad (more specifically when you get feudalism), and you sure don’t want to chop any trees. Trees are un-pillageable production. They slow enemy horses & tanks down, and give you health bonuses (health will be your limiting growth factor for 95% of the game) Three hills and 4 forests (assume we built on one hill, so really 2 production hills) will be enough to pump out a modern unit every turn, once optimized. If you cant resist the urge to make a worker before then don’t ever automate him - or he'll plant girly cottages over your fine manly trees before you know it
2. Dont develop tiles at all unless they have a resource on them (ie dont even put a road there). Ideally we want trees everywhere in the fat cross, and any development will stop them growing on empty tiles. Ditto, avoid the temptation of chopping forests on hills to build mines, as the AI loves to pillage, bomb, sabotage and generally destroy your land – you don’t want to have to park a SAM on every tile later – it’s bad enough trying to guard the 3-4 resource tiles you’ll probably have
3. Feel free to develop sea food resources
World Wonders
On deity this refers to you wondering how the f*ck the AI can build them so fast. You can sometimes go all out and get one, but you’ll cripple yourself too badly in other areas by doing so. However, if you're below 100% science feel free to put some hammers into each wonder as it becomes available, then use that cash to keep science at 100%
Build and Research Order
Our first goal is to build a library as early as possible, however we need to take a specific route to get there:
Build a barracks
Research hunting, research archery (co-ordinate to finish on same turn as barracks ideally)
Build 3 archers (We cant afford the gamble of going for bronze or iron working before the first attacks start, so archery is the only safe bet. We want to be attacked, as we need to level some units to unlock heroic epic & westpoint – doing so before any land is developed and AI armies are still small is optimal. 3 archers will get you attacked with a good chance of surviving, 4 or more tends to delay attacks and increase the odds of the AI waiting till it has swordsmen. Better to let them attack right away and sue for peace once the swords arrive than have to survive 10-15 turns of getting your butt kicked. Pre building an extra archer (stop production with 1 turn remaining and leave in queue) adds some insurance.
Give your archers city defense 1 and fortify them in the city (don’t move them out for any reason – we’re defending only at this point). Next promotions are city defense 2 & 3 then hill defense 1 & 2 as that bonus stacks. Send your initial warrior out to scout – his goal is to make contact with every civ before he dies, if possible.
When you start building your archers research animal husbandry, then writing. If you have sea food resources then go fishing, pottery, writing instead (little slower this route but not much)
After the archers are completed if you have remaining turns before writing is complete then depending on your judgment of the situation either build more archers, scouts, or workboats. If you are unsure, or have nothing else useful to build then build archers. Try not to exceed your free unit cap though, we cant afford to drop science yet
Secondary goals during this phase:
Get food production up high enough to support 2 scientists as soon as library is done.
Make a scout and try to map as much as possible. Soon we will need to know who borders who, who has what strategic resources and where. Also hopefully we will be one of the first to research paper - which is often some easy gold for selling our map to civs who are missing areas. If your immediate neighbors are all at war with you and you cant get a scout out don’t worry too much though – just a bonus if you can.
You next goal is to research alphabet as early as possible and build some GP points (equally critical). This boils down to keeping 2 scientist specialists working for the next x turns, uninterrupted.
It’s likely you will be under attack for most of this time, and your production will be low. You can still build a few useful things, but try to avoid removing those scientists unless a real emergency occurs. Use judgment to build replacement archers, walls, obelisk, granary, lighthouse, harbor etc – whichever you need the most.
Secondary goals
Get open borders with everyone
Finish scouting all the land and consider deleting scout in favor of +1 archer
Start deciding who you want to make a PA with later, and agree to absolutely everything this AI asks of you (see later section for details) – having any red items on your relationship with this civ will make things harder/more expensive later. Ideally you want someone a long distance away, ideally with a religion you have access to, and ideally who likes a civic which isnt too useless (incase you need to switch to it to boost relations later) - if you look up the civolpedia entry for a leader it says which civic is their favorite
Once you get alphabet start trading as much as you can. Any trade puts you better off than when you started it. Plan ahead though, you cant trade bronze working till 1 turn after mining, iron working till 1 turn after bronze etc - so dont trade your assets away too cheaply on the first round.
All other things being equal, trade with the most backward nations first (want everyone close together in score, and want the latest techs from the lead researchers not the old techs from them). You ideally want to plan 5-10 trades ahead. Think of it as a game within a game – your goal is collect every tech, even though some appear initially un-obtainable
Leave your scientist specialists in place and research drama next. Monarchy will be a tempting alternative but has a much lower trade value as every AI will have it by the time you do, whereas drama (which you want early for globe theatre anyway) is much easier to trade for other techs.
When you get your first great scientist build an academy
Once you finish drama and have your first Great Scientist then drop your scientist specialists for a while to focus on production (build a theatre and the globe theatre unless you need something else more urgently - globe allows a lot of whipping in emergencies)
Back fill any buildings which will give a noticeable benefit and raise your population to the max happiness cap (ready for caste system when we’ll switch everything back to science shortly)
If you get monarchy before you've built the globe theatre then switch to hereditary rule for the extra happiness
Keep pop maxed to the limits available. Depending on how many trees and food you may need an aqueduct, granary etc – build what you need most. Dont stress too much about health cap though - it's not nearly as damaging as happiness cap, which is why our main goal is to get the globe theatre up asap
Note that once you build the globe theatre you can trade away all your luxury resources for health resources ideally, or sell them to the highest bidder if not (2 gold a turn is still better than nothing) – you have no more happiness worries at this point, and your pop is limited solely by health and food
Next you want to research code of laws and then civil service (caste system/bureaucracy are both very powerful in an occ)
Once you get feudalism (likely via trade, as all AI will have it before you) pay to upgrade an archer to a longbow – the AI will sniff around you but the sight of a longbow seems to make them much less likely to attack any time soon. Congratulations, you’ve survived phase 1, and can now relax on research somewhat and catch up on infrastructure
Consider building a worker or three at this point and start improving your land (don’t chop any trees in the fat cross). Keep some gold on hand for emergency upgrades of more archers to longbows if possible
Once you get code of laws max your scientist specialists and research civil service (bureaucracy) as soon as possible
A mini-pattern now exists for a while
1) Do a science burst (caste system+representation+pacifism*) and use your (hopefully already maxed) population as scientists (don’t be afraid of temporary starvation if it saves a turn) to discover things
2) Trade techs for gold/other techs whenever profitable
3) Do a production burst (org religion* for buildings, theocracy* for units) whenever you have something valuable to build (slightly subjective depending on exact situation – a forge is a good generic first item if in doubt).
*Need to turn on a religion to use these – don’t do so if it will annoy too many people. Religions start wars faster than anything else – if in doubt, avoid them.
Research (or trade) order
Paper (nb, trade/sell your map to anyone who wants it)
Education (for University and Oxford university – build both as soon as available)
Liberalism (free religion for tech bonus when not using a religious multiplier)
Astronomy (build observatory asap)
Scientific method (see own and enemy oil - strategically critical)
Communism (to ensure PA is available asap)
All of these have a decent trade value. The main tech you want to trade for is military tradition (westpoint and defensive pacts) which should be easy via this list
Build monastries when you get a religion
Build heroic epic once unlocked (see if anyone will trade you marble for something)
If your borders are being squashed (eg small map/18) then hermitage may become a priority
Possibly build more workers, if you have a lot of good tiles unimproved – feel free to chop outside of the fat cross (but try to wait till producing something with a bonus such as heroic epic with marble). Once the AI gets spies you will want enough workers to build your best land improvement in one turn. For example on epic speed if you have oil then you will want 6 workers so you can rebuild your well ‘instantly’, so you are never without oil. You’ll find that stacking 20 military units on the tile isn’t enough to prevent the AI spies taking it out every other turn
Build Ironworks once available
Switch to environmentalism as soon as available
Build hospital and red cross when available
Build pentagon if available (often your first world wonder but not guaranteed)
Things to ignore - temples, market, grocer (unless you have those goods which give +health), bank, courthouse. Obviously create military units throughout as needed to replace casualties but avoid exceeding your free troop limit unless a situation is really looking grim
You may or may not get to the end of this list before you get your PA, and switch to offense, so some notes on key concepts may be useful at this point:
Politics
This is where the game will be won or lost at deity. It’s the one area where you can compete with the AI.
Decisions which demand you side with Civ A or Civ B
-“declare war on x”
Only ever agree to a war if it's your PA target who's asking
-“stop trading with x”
This boils down to knowing who you want to keep happy. You literally want to write down a pecking order of who you least want to annoy, working downwards to folks you don’t care about annoying, and then use it to accept/deny every request based on siding with the higher person on your list - consistency is key here.
Decisions where an AI just wants something
-give us tech x
-give us 100 gold
-give us resource z
-convert to civic x
-convert to religion y
These are an easy way to increase relations and are typically worth agreeing to. The one exception to this is if they ask for an expensive tech (unless its your PA target civ asking). If you agree to supply a resource be aware you can cancel it after 10 turns, and often charge them for it at that point
If you do refuse to give a tech then its often worth seeing if the civ has something to trade for it. This wont salvage the politics, but it does alert you to a potential tech trade
Tech trading
When you get to the later techs there can be some advantage to holding them back. Until 1000ad or so though just trade anything you can with anyone who will - they're all so cheap that an AI who wants them will have them before you know it.
Once you get currency or paper dont be afraid to trade techs for cash whenever you need it, and maps if you havent got around to making a scout yet. Often by selling a tech cheaply for whatever gold a few civs have you can get enough to trade the tech and gold to an advanced civ for another tech
Dont expect a fair deal from the AI. They'll want to rip you off on each trade offering say a 1200 beaker tech for a 1800 beaker tech. This is a huge plus in your favor, as it severely limits how much they trade amongst themselves. You can trade a tech to Civ-A and contrary to popular opinion he wont give it to Civ-B until Civ-B can offer fair value for it. Meanwhile you can trade it to 5 civs taking a loss on each deal but adding up to a large net gain. Note however that sometimes you can get them to increase their offer fairly significantly or at least throw in their map and any cash they have. In the early game ultimately you want to take whatever deal they offer - because you'll hopefully get 5 other deals for the same tech, and often some deals from the techs you got in trade. Note you want to avoid techs which the AI beelines for - as they will have no trade value
Religion
First dont even think about founding one. Second, the benefits of +1 happiness is worthless. The only real advantages then are org religion (+25% building, theocracy (+2 unit xp) and pacifism (+100% gpp). None of these are worth starting a war over. So, 80%+ of the time you dont want any state religion except in the very rare scenario where the whole world has the same religion
Typically you will find half the world is Buddhist, and the other half is Hindu. In this scenario, you want to have no state religion. If someone asks you to switch to a religion then feel free to do so - it's a free and easy +1 to relations (just make sure to switch back as soon as available). If you like micromanaging then perhaps consider switching to Buddhism when trading with Buddhist civs and vice versa with Hindu ones a few turns later - personally I haven’t resorted to doing this, except when it comes to starting wars or making defensive pacts or PA's
