This is my strategy for early game-play. I have only managed to use it successfully on warlord, so I am hoping some of you can help me amend this very incomplete style of play.
The absolute first thing I do is set my research course directly to horseback riding. My reasoning will follow. And, throughout the whole game, make sure you have an ally! This ally will become helpful for trading, and possibly as an extra faction in war.
Second, I begin expanding as rapidly as possible and, of course, I follow the Optimal City Placement (OCP) strategy as closely as possible. As well as producing settlers, I build many workers. I believe that a strong military must have a strong infrastructure for mobility reasons. And by strong infrastructure, I mean there is a road connecting every single city as efficiently as possible. This way the far corners of the civilization can still effectively produce military units.
Once horseback riding is complete, I immediately set my scientific research down to ten percent. This is the point where I switch over to a completely militaristic civilization. While I still produce settlers and city improvements, the majority of my cities produce horsemen. I choose horsemen because they can be upgraded all the way up to cavalry, especially with the extra gold you have from keeping scientific research around ten percent.
Now comes the fun. Select a civilization to begin a war. Hopefully enough horsemen have been built that you can quickly storm their territory and cripple their economy and infrastructure. This thread does not cover how to wage war. Once the war has been ended, demand all of the technologies the enemy civilization has. At this point, you should be able to launch the scientific research back up to 50, or maybe 60 percent. Next is the tricky part.
Now you are very susceptible to other civilizations. If someone makes a demand from you, it is in your best interest to succumb; however their threat is very weak if they are across an ocean. If you are very certain about your defenses, you may want to decline their demand. You should not make a decision too quickly! At this point, you may want to switch your government over to communism. Never switch to a republic or democracy! With those two government types, troop upkeep is a pain and can lead to debt.
Any seasoned players want to update or suggest amendments to my strategy? It would be greatly appreciated!
The absolute first thing I do is set my research course directly to horseback riding. My reasoning will follow. And, throughout the whole game, make sure you have an ally! This ally will become helpful for trading, and possibly as an extra faction in war.
Second, I begin expanding as rapidly as possible and, of course, I follow the Optimal City Placement (OCP) strategy as closely as possible. As well as producing settlers, I build many workers. I believe that a strong military must have a strong infrastructure for mobility reasons. And by strong infrastructure, I mean there is a road connecting every single city as efficiently as possible. This way the far corners of the civilization can still effectively produce military units.
Once horseback riding is complete, I immediately set my scientific research down to ten percent. This is the point where I switch over to a completely militaristic civilization. While I still produce settlers and city improvements, the majority of my cities produce horsemen. I choose horsemen because they can be upgraded all the way up to cavalry, especially with the extra gold you have from keeping scientific research around ten percent.
Now comes the fun. Select a civilization to begin a war. Hopefully enough horsemen have been built that you can quickly storm their territory and cripple their economy and infrastructure. This thread does not cover how to wage war. Once the war has been ended, demand all of the technologies the enemy civilization has. At this point, you should be able to launch the scientific research back up to 50, or maybe 60 percent. Next is the tricky part.
Now you are very susceptible to other civilizations. If someone makes a demand from you, it is in your best interest to succumb; however their threat is very weak if they are across an ocean. If you are very certain about your defenses, you may want to decline their demand. You should not make a decision too quickly! At this point, you may want to switch your government over to communism. Never switch to a republic or democracy! With those two government types, troop upkeep is a pain and can lead to debt.
Any seasoned players want to update or suggest amendments to my strategy? It would be greatly appreciated!
and will do nothing to further their game, even at my own expense.
Learn to work the luxury slider each turn, especially on the last turn before learning a new tech to reduce commerce over-run so you can retain that excess gold.
Sounds funny I know, but in several games (when I don't have an immediate neighbor) I end up having way too many cities without enough military or city improvements to support them. So now I'm learning to balance the "warrior, settler, worker, rinse & repeat" mindset in the early game with a bit of empire management. Before it was always expand, expand, expand until my borders touched other Civs. 
