At the lower levels I played Persians and used a strategy of;
1. Expand with settlers and exploit terrain
2. Find iron
3. Build Immortals
4. Expand by conquest
5. Switch to republic or democracy
6. Reach a critical mass of cities, land, resource & pop. that is..usually more than any other AI
7. Build Forbidden Palace at other end of my territory to the capital - this reduces corruption greatly (needs GL usually)
6. Switch focus of towns to defense, science and production
7. Build spaceship
Policy on science - trade and keep up, in early game ..be ahead in later game to ensure spaceship build ahead of AI
Policy on wonders - opportunistic when I have GLs ..otherwise I don't bother with Great wonders
This works well up to Monarch ..but less so on Emperor and Deity because the AI civs rapidly take the land and resouce..even when I could find the (at these levels scarce) iron and build an army I found my cities often defected to the reigious civs....SO RETHINK..if you cannot beat them join them ....got my first win at Deity by playing the Babylonians and strategy I recommend is;
1. Expand with settlers and exploit terrain
2. Build temples,cathedrals, libraries..continue to build culture improvements as much as poss.throughout the game
3. Build Bowmen (good for defensive and offense)..continue to build units regularly ..whatever is best available with your combination of resource and science
4. Trade as much as poss. Everything..maps, resource..science.. be THE broker..you can only keep up with science by trade and later by peace settlements
5. Establish embassies..you're going to need friends to win with this strategy..switch to democracy as soon as poss
6. The other civs are bigger than you so keep up to date with their score via regular looks on the F8 key
7. The biggest scoring civ is your target. Establish MPPs with the others as far as is practical..try to engineer it so that the largest civ gets isolated
8. Make sure the isolated civ starts a war with you..the others will beat him/her up..make sure that your defense is up to scratch
9. repeat this "isolate the top civ by MPP" policy throughout the game. This means you are ducking and diving with your diplomacy/mPPs throughout
10. At same time make sure you deny the civs resource as much as poss. especially uranium and aluminium..in later stages you need this more than them and it's key to denying them spaceship victory. Babylonian is religious and scientific..religious has given some land gains by culture flip by this stage too BUT it's time to use science pro-actively and start on spaceship so..
11. Build Forbidden Palace at other end of my territory to the capital - this reduces corruption greatly (in my I had to build it because my MPP policy meant I didn't do much fighting with my own units and so don't expect any GLs)
12. Switch focus of towns to science and production
13. Build spaceship
1. Expand with settlers and exploit terrain
2. Find iron
3. Build Immortals
4. Expand by conquest
5. Switch to republic or democracy
6. Reach a critical mass of cities, land, resource & pop. that is..usually more than any other AI
7. Build Forbidden Palace at other end of my territory to the capital - this reduces corruption greatly (needs GL usually)
6. Switch focus of towns to defense, science and production
7. Build spaceship
Policy on science - trade and keep up, in early game ..be ahead in later game to ensure spaceship build ahead of AI
Policy on wonders - opportunistic when I have GLs ..otherwise I don't bother with Great wonders
This works well up to Monarch ..but less so on Emperor and Deity because the AI civs rapidly take the land and resouce..even when I could find the (at these levels scarce) iron and build an army I found my cities often defected to the reigious civs....SO RETHINK..if you cannot beat them join them ....got my first win at Deity by playing the Babylonians and strategy I recommend is;
1. Expand with settlers and exploit terrain
2. Build temples,cathedrals, libraries..continue to build culture improvements as much as poss.throughout the game
3. Build Bowmen (good for defensive and offense)..continue to build units regularly ..whatever is best available with your combination of resource and science
4. Trade as much as poss. Everything..maps, resource..science.. be THE broker..you can only keep up with science by trade and later by peace settlements
5. Establish embassies..you're going to need friends to win with this strategy..switch to democracy as soon as poss
6. The other civs are bigger than you so keep up to date with their score via regular looks on the F8 key
7. The biggest scoring civ is your target. Establish MPPs with the others as far as is practical..try to engineer it so that the largest civ gets isolated
8. Make sure the isolated civ starts a war with you..the others will beat him/her up..make sure that your defense is up to scratch
9. repeat this "isolate the top civ by MPP" policy throughout the game. This means you are ducking and diving with your diplomacy/mPPs throughout
10. At same time make sure you deny the civs resource as much as poss. especially uranium and aluminium..in later stages you need this more than them and it's key to denying them spaceship victory. Babylonian is religious and scientific..religious has given some land gains by culture flip by this stage too BUT it's time to use science pro-actively and start on spaceship so..
11. Build Forbidden Palace at other end of my territory to the capital - this reduces corruption greatly (in my I had to build it because my MPP policy meant I didn't do much fighting with my own units and so don't expect any GLs)
12. Switch focus of towns to science and production
13. Build spaceship