I've read a number of entries in this forum about strategy, and I've tried a few. For example, there's the strategy suggested in "French Puppets Strategy". I tried it and it worked really well. It's basically a rush strategy, but then I found myself on a small continent by myself, and it didn't work at all. That's what I like about the Civ games. You basically need to have a number of strategies that you can use as different leaders and in different situations.