Hi there,
First off, if you are just starting to play civ 2, I'd pick a lower level.
My first game I was warlord then moved up one level per game until I was comfortable.
A lot of the success I had was in picking my spots for my cities.
If you look at the pattern of "special" resources, you can get spots where there are four resources within the city limits.
Another thing I've done is use the terrain to my advantage. If the bad guys are coming, I put good defensive units, on mountains in the path of the bad guys between them and my cities. Your units will prove too tempting a target and they will attack them. On a mountain you get a big defensive bonus. For example, I'f you have a fortified phalanx on a mountain, it will defend against at least 5 horsemen.
The other civs will treat you badly if you are ahead of them. They will declare war often. It is just part of the game. Build lots of cities. The more you have, the greater your collective output and ability to churn out units. Connect all of your cities with roads and build roads in all squares within the city limits.
There is so much to say that it is hard to remember it all. :crazyeyes:
There are lots of posts here with good strategy. Look for posts by starlifter. His posts helped me out a ton.
A big tip would just be to frequent this forum and read often.
