My favorite strategy; it hasn't won me a game yet, but it comes recommended. Build up as fast as you can. I like city walls and coastal fortresses; lets you keep less troops in your cities. I go to monarchy as soon as I can, and then fundamentalism. I am an aggressive person, so I usually start a war when I can. I can steal advances by taking cities. I also like fundamentalism because I usually have trouble with unhappy citizens any other way. I also like to have a huge military. I usually surround my continent or islands with a chain of destroyers or ironclads, such that I can see anything that tries to come through long before it gets to my shores. If I am at war with the invader, I just sink their ship. If not, I might let it through to see what happens. This helps keep them from building cities near mine.
I try to get the science wonders right away and put them in my best science city; copernicus observatory, newton's college, etc. I like libraries and universities in all my cities. When my cities are producing too much food, I convert citizens to scientists. I also try to get leonardos workshop and magellan's expidition; with my navy I like to have more mobility. In my last game, my stats said that at one point my military was over 350 units; with 8 aircraft carriers, 10 battleships, and at one point, I had 12 transports filled with marines and tanks ready to invade a French continent with 6-7 cruisers, and several battleships and carriers supporting the invasion fleet. It was truly an impressive sight. I swept across that continent in a few turns.
That game is still in progress now, and I don't know how well I am doing because I never won yet, but I am about to complete appolo program and it is about 1970, and I have a nuclear arsenal I don't think anyone else has. I am playing on a medium map and I control the whole southern half of it. I have a line of destroyers, aegis cruisers, and battle ships going around the whole equator. I am number one in science, and I still have the largest military by far. All the other civilizations combined still have a smaller military. I stayed with fundamentalism the whole time; no other gov't would support a warmaking effort like that.
SO I guess my strategy is get ahead in science as fast as you can and have a huge military.
