I don't know if this is just common sense or not, but here goes...
I play on deity. One of my main strategies when I play is to bully and extort other civs as much as possible. You can drain them absolutely dry with repeated demands of tribute! In most cases, they will be militarily weaker than you and so will have to accede to your demands.
The key to this is military "strength." Once you're strong enough, most nations will pay tribute to you, or if you push them too far, declare war on you but then sue for peace on the very next turn, usually paying a sizeable part of their treasury for a cease-fire.
But you don't have to have an effective offensive army in order to be considered "strong"... numbers seem to matter more than anything else. If you build enough phalanxes (3 per city) this will count as a strong military presence and the AI will fear you.
To complement this strategy, you have to go for Marco Polo as soon as possible! That way you'll establish contact with all the other civilisations and potentially you will be able to extort all 6 (or however many are left) of them.
To utilise this strategy fully you will have to make frequent demands on other civilisations. Don't be shy! Approach them every three turns or so (more often for wealthier civs) and demand tribute.
Marco will let you know how much gold the other civs have. I typically wait until they have accumulated 100-150 gold before demanding tribute. Marco's can also function as a Great Library of sorts, since civs will sometime give you scientific advances instead of gold.
In my games I go first for Colossus, then for Marco Polo. Then the Great Library, but no great hurry on that one; I'll only bring in caravans or rush-build it if another civ is about to finish it before I do.
I play on deity. One of my main strategies when I play is to bully and extort other civs as much as possible. You can drain them absolutely dry with repeated demands of tribute! In most cases, they will be militarily weaker than you and so will have to accede to your demands.
The key to this is military "strength." Once you're strong enough, most nations will pay tribute to you, or if you push them too far, declare war on you but then sue for peace on the very next turn, usually paying a sizeable part of their treasury for a cease-fire.
But you don't have to have an effective offensive army in order to be considered "strong"... numbers seem to matter more than anything else. If you build enough phalanxes (3 per city) this will count as a strong military presence and the AI will fear you.
To complement this strategy, you have to go for Marco Polo as soon as possible! That way you'll establish contact with all the other civilisations and potentially you will be able to extort all 6 (or however many are left) of them.
To utilise this strategy fully you will have to make frequent demands on other civilisations. Don't be shy! Approach them every three turns or so (more often for wealthier civs) and demand tribute.
Marco will let you know how much gold the other civs have. I typically wait until they have accumulated 100-150 gold before demanding tribute. Marco's can also function as a Great Library of sorts, since civs will sometime give you scientific advances instead of gold.
In my games I go first for Colossus, then for Marco Polo. Then the Great Library, but no great hurry on that one; I'll only bring in caravans or rush-build it if another civ is about to finish it before I do.
