I've played a number of games now, 1 on chieftan and several on warlord. I went with the Greeks each time, figuring the combo of commercial/scientific worked best for my play style (largely peaceful, expand as much as I can... assimilate through culture and conquer only if I need a special resource someone else has).
My latest game went very well, as I started on a large continent and, for the 1st time, started an early war (w/the Egyptians).
The setup went like this: I started in the SE corner, the French in the South, the Romans in the West, the Egyptians in the NW. The Germans, English, Indians and Chinese were overseas.
In any event, the Egyptians built a city with 6 spices in its radius... SIX! Well, I just had to have it. I continued on to take Thebes and a couple of other cities and then stopped. Using archers and hoplites was effective and I got swordsmen part way through the campaign, which also helped. I built the Forbidden Palace (best minor wonder, bar none) in Thebes, which took FOREVER, since thebes lost nearly all its production to waste. Once complete, however, and combined w/democracy, corruption went from crippling to minor annoyance (this may also have been attributable to the fact that I had TONS of luxury resources and nearly all of my people were happy).
I assimilated a couple of French cities near my capital, which was nice, and concentrated on tech and wonders for a while... I built the G.Library, Hanging Gardens, Cop's Observatory, Sistine Chapel... you get the idea. The Romans, with whom I had enjoyed good relations, up and declared war on me for no reason (they didn't even demand anything). It was touch and go briefly as they hit a relatively weak section of my empire with two large stacks of pikeman/knights, but I held on. My new musketmen helped greatly
I then counter-attacked w/Knights and such and took a city before they asked for peace.
Later on, having discovered Steam Power, I noticed that the only Coal resources on my continent were within Roman territory - near Rome, actually. Thought process:
I need coal to build railroads
I have no coal.
The Romans have coal.
The Romans are weak, and have messed with me before.
The Romans must die.
I love the fact that wars now have a purpose! In any event, the Romans did die, and I built my railroads. After that, I was all set... I built up my cities, survived some minor global warming (which seems to occur 1 square at a time) until I got to egology and recycling, and discovered that I had all of the other resources I need. The only worry was that I only have one oil resource... but there are others I could easily acquire with my Modern Armor/Radar Artillery/Stealth Bombers/Mech Inf/Battleships&Destroyers. *GRIN* I am presently building spaceship parts.
I am pondering playing either a Commercial/Religious or Religious/Scientific civ next... or possibly sticking w/the Greeks.
p.s. One annoying thing did happen... I built the UN. Once built, it asked me if I wanted to hold a council vote. I said "sure."
The Egyptians have voted for Queen Elizabeth of the Engish
The French have voted for Queen Elizabeth of the English
The Germans (who were AT WAR w/the English) have voted for Q.E. of the English
The Indians have voted for Q.E. of the English
The Chinese have voted for Q.E. of the English.
YOU LOSE. Luckily , I had just saved the game the turn before.
I'm getting more bummed all the time 
and took away my source of Iron (one of them)
And I have no where I can upload them.....well.....here they are.
King Tiger's 
in Civ3... 
