I have won with two space race victories, and gotten close to another. I am currently in an epic emperor game where I am leading the score and technology. This works best with a financial leader, and I just wanted to see what people think of my strategy.
I have noticed the only games I can get a nice research time with are when I have a nice money giving resource close by, aka some gold or gems I can grab with my first two expansion cities. I think this is because it allows me to expand but not go too far into negative income until I can improve the cities. I use the normal worker chop strategy to begin with. I go for one worker first. If I still have time until bronze working I mine a hill.
Depending on what I have scouted I either go straight for a settler or another worker. However, I do try to make the second city I found to be a production center. This helps with putting out the numbers of axemen and archers you need to start an early war if necessary. The second expansion is usually founded for commerce to help me deal with expenses. I then start looking around for a third expansion with lots of food to give me a great people factory. I do tend to generalize the cities some, but they tend to stay specialized. Also all cities should make atleast one worker if not two. When founding cities make sure you place them carefully to maximize what you want them to do. If you place them just for land when most of the land is worthless or you don't have enough food to work everything it is a waste. I make sure to study the map before placing my cities and plan multiple cities in advance.
While I do this I tend to research Bronze Working first, fishing/agriculture/husbandry depending on what I need, and then archery. I then try to get pottery as fast as possible. This is so I can get as many cottages in place for my commerce cities and the capital. Once I have these techs I will then either go on a beeline up the tech tree to commerce, or I will get iron working to allow swordsmen and jungle cutting if necessary. While you are researching this the production city should already have a barracks and should produce nothing but archers, axemen, and swordsmen.
I generally get the iron working if I see there is a civ that is too close to me. In that case I try to get as many swordsmen together and attack their outlying cities, and resources. Once your swordsmen get city attack III there shouldn't be much trouble taking cities defended by archers. You should bring some axemen and pikemen along though to deal with horsemen and enemy axes.
I usually don't make world wonders early in the game unless I have stone right by me and lots of forests, but if you get the chance to capture stone henge or the pyramids make it a priority.
At this point you should have a few more cities, and your workers should be putting in as many cottages in as possible allowing for enough hammers to make improvements to the city. This is where workshops can come in handy if you are on a flat grassland area. The production centers though I leave to have mainly food and production improvements until I get later techs.
You should try to keep yourself at war for large periods of time with the computer, and even try to get the computer to help you if possible to slow down their tech speed. You should declare peace when your population starts to get too tired of war, or if you need to build some infastructure due to a new technology.
Once you have researched alphabet start trading all the techs you have to the computer for techs and cash, but only if they have significant amounts of cash. I know some will say this will help put the computer above you, but you will find this will actually fuel your war machine and research. It will allow you to capture cities while still having a good amount of research by working in a deficit economy, but you should have close to 1000 gold so that shouldn't be a problem. Just make sure to hang onto the techs that give you an advantage, aka cavalry, education until you get liberalism, etc... This part of the strategy is of course assuming you have contact with most civs by now.
You should try to aim for getting better civics and research buildings at this point, and keep trading to allow yourself to expand and research. Keep making military units and upgrading them as necessary. I usually try to get a continent to myself, or to atleast eliminate the aggressive civs first. If this is not possible then at least make sure your borders are well guarded, and make ships to help get rid of any sea invasion forces before they land.
You should keep the workers busy of course improving lands, and make sure your priority targets when taking out civs are the resources they have. I have found that by exploiting my resources and denying resources to my enemy it is alot easier to dominate them.
I find that this type of aggressive fininacial expansion with tech trading works right up to the end where the computer doesn't want to trade anymore techs. At this point you should try to get spies in your major rivals lands and commit acts of sabatoge on aluminum and space ship part productions. Also make sure that you have your workers coming in directly after your conquests to improve the cities, and get them out of deficit spending there. A well placed forbidden palace can do wonders with this as well. So, don't necessarily build it as soon as you can. Plan for your future conquests, and then place it where it will help later. Make sure you build the Apollo program as soon as you can because you need to start your production early to beat the computer.
I hope this has been slightly helpful, and I hope that people have lots of suggestions for making it a better strategy. I usually play Catherine for the enormously powerful Cossack push you can make Mid-Game to help take out your closest rival. Also if you are unable to found a religion feel free to conquer one, and make it your own. This is one of my favorites in the late game to help supliment my income with a great shrine.
I have noticed the only games I can get a nice research time with are when I have a nice money giving resource close by, aka some gold or gems I can grab with my first two expansion cities. I think this is because it allows me to expand but not go too far into negative income until I can improve the cities. I use the normal worker chop strategy to begin with. I go for one worker first. If I still have time until bronze working I mine a hill.
Depending on what I have scouted I either go straight for a settler or another worker. However, I do try to make the second city I found to be a production center. This helps with putting out the numbers of axemen and archers you need to start an early war if necessary. The second expansion is usually founded for commerce to help me deal with expenses. I then start looking around for a third expansion with lots of food to give me a great people factory. I do tend to generalize the cities some, but they tend to stay specialized. Also all cities should make atleast one worker if not two. When founding cities make sure you place them carefully to maximize what you want them to do. If you place them just for land when most of the land is worthless or you don't have enough food to work everything it is a waste. I make sure to study the map before placing my cities and plan multiple cities in advance.
While I do this I tend to research Bronze Working first, fishing/agriculture/husbandry depending on what I need, and then archery. I then try to get pottery as fast as possible. This is so I can get as many cottages in place for my commerce cities and the capital. Once I have these techs I will then either go on a beeline up the tech tree to commerce, or I will get iron working to allow swordsmen and jungle cutting if necessary. While you are researching this the production city should already have a barracks and should produce nothing but archers, axemen, and swordsmen.
I generally get the iron working if I see there is a civ that is too close to me. In that case I try to get as many swordsmen together and attack their outlying cities, and resources. Once your swordsmen get city attack III there shouldn't be much trouble taking cities defended by archers. You should bring some axemen and pikemen along though to deal with horsemen and enemy axes.
I usually don't make world wonders early in the game unless I have stone right by me and lots of forests, but if you get the chance to capture stone henge or the pyramids make it a priority.
At this point you should have a few more cities, and your workers should be putting in as many cottages in as possible allowing for enough hammers to make improvements to the city. This is where workshops can come in handy if you are on a flat grassland area. The production centers though I leave to have mainly food and production improvements until I get later techs.
You should try to keep yourself at war for large periods of time with the computer, and even try to get the computer to help you if possible to slow down their tech speed. You should declare peace when your population starts to get too tired of war, or if you need to build some infastructure due to a new technology.
Once you have researched alphabet start trading all the techs you have to the computer for techs and cash, but only if they have significant amounts of cash. I know some will say this will help put the computer above you, but you will find this will actually fuel your war machine and research. It will allow you to capture cities while still having a good amount of research by working in a deficit economy, but you should have close to 1000 gold so that shouldn't be a problem. Just make sure to hang onto the techs that give you an advantage, aka cavalry, education until you get liberalism, etc... This part of the strategy is of course assuming you have contact with most civs by now.
You should try to aim for getting better civics and research buildings at this point, and keep trading to allow yourself to expand and research. Keep making military units and upgrading them as necessary. I usually try to get a continent to myself, or to atleast eliminate the aggressive civs first. If this is not possible then at least make sure your borders are well guarded, and make ships to help get rid of any sea invasion forces before they land.
You should keep the workers busy of course improving lands, and make sure your priority targets when taking out civs are the resources they have. I have found that by exploiting my resources and denying resources to my enemy it is alot easier to dominate them.
I find that this type of aggressive fininacial expansion with tech trading works right up to the end where the computer doesn't want to trade anymore techs. At this point you should try to get spies in your major rivals lands and commit acts of sabatoge on aluminum and space ship part productions. Also make sure that you have your workers coming in directly after your conquests to improve the cities, and get them out of deficit spending there. A well placed forbidden palace can do wonders with this as well. So, don't necessarily build it as soon as you can. Plan for your future conquests, and then place it where it will help later. Make sure you build the Apollo program as soon as you can because you need to start your production early to beat the computer.
I hope this has been slightly helpful, and I hope that people have lots of suggestions for making it a better strategy. I usually play Catherine for the enormously powerful Cossack push you can make Mid-Game to help take out your closest rival. Also if you are unable to found a religion feel free to conquer one, and make it your own. This is one of my favorites in the late game to help supliment my income with a great shrine.
