Agree with Fred's outline for initial turns.
Been a while since I played Civ4, so what is the rule for enhancing the stealing of techs, that the city has to have our religion in it or that the civ needs to share our religion?
England, America, Russia, Germany and Japan all have cities they can liberate to us. Is this anything we can take advantage of?
Started a classical era Deity game and then went into WorldBuilder and checked to see what techs the AI start with. They have:
Mysticism, Mediation, Polytheism, Priesthood, Monotheism, Fishing, The Wheel, Agriculture, Pottery, Writing, Hunting, Mining, Archery, Masonry, Animal Husbandry and Bronze Working. So they are capable of researching Alphabet immediately, will they?
Starting units are 5 Archers, 2 Scouts, 2 Workers and 2 Settlers.