General strategy for Persia PBEM game

[RStark]

Hello guys!

I need some advice on general strategy for Persia PBEM game.
We started a PBEM game with following settings:
- 7 human players, no AI
- 24 city states
- map is large Terra, where all players initially are situated in a big continent (Asia-Europe-Africa like)
- start from Ancient Era
- epic speed
- aggressive barbarians
- no ruins

I played a lot of Civ 3 and 4 single player games, and also have few exp in Civ 5. However, I have not played any MP games at all.
Can you give me some advice on how to develop my civ to take advantage of persian traits and provide some general strategy guidelines? I don't want to be a meat
I think that maybe at first I should develop in more military way and attack nearby city states and civs with my unique spearmen. Grab lands with luxury resources, generate happiness, trigger golden age, then again attack other civ during the golden age. So using some strategy like that...

Moderator Action: Moved to the MP section.

 

[Tabarnak]

Pick free settler from Liberty and stay there until NC is done. Raging barbs can be very annoying if you build too much cities. Research Civil Service, build Chichen Itza. Build 2-3 spearmen from cities for later to upgrade. With 3 buffed pikes you can conquer 1-2 cs around.

It's a large map, you will fight way more barbs than human units in the beginning.

Edit : Try to finish Chichen Itza before free golden age from Liberty for an epic golden age

 

[RStark]

Thank you Tabarnak for your suggestions.
I also found a really useful strategic guide on playing as persians.
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=437142
I will try to implement "Forever Golden" strategy, but I am not sure how well it will work against players.