Select a civilization that reflects your playing style. Ask yourself: Does this civil excel at the victory type I'm going for? Can I exploit my Civ's in-game bonuses? Keep in mind that certain civs are better for certain victory types. The Americans and Aztecs are good for almost any victory, but other civilizations are more specific. For example, the Chinese do best with technology and the Spanish are excellent and economics.
Start the Game!
Move your settler to an optimal capital city starting position. This should be a location with 4+ food, 4+ production (hammers), and 4+ trade. A good place to play should be a city surrounded by 2 grasslands, 3 forest, and 2 sea tiles. Save at 4000 BC. Get a good look around the general area. Look for enemy capitals, native villages, and resources. Look for: Be on the lookout for rivers and resource tiles, these can provide a ton of extra food ,production, and trade. Any opposing civilization that attacks from across a river has its attack power slashed by 50%. It is also a good strategy to settle directly next to a barbarian village, as they give you a free militia and there is a valuable resource tile underneath them. Avoid: Likewise you should settling adjacent to mountains, and hills, unless the hill contains iron (with early technology iron-working this gives you a hefty production boost), or if the mountains contain gold, or gems(both of which give you, well, gold). However settling on a hill is very good, as it gives your city a much improved line of sight and adds a whooping +50% attack and defensive bonus to units stationed inside. However settling next to a hill gives the enemies a +50% attack bonus when attacking from that hill. An optimal city location would be a hill surrounded on multiple sides by rivers. This forces enemies to attack across a river and also up a hill! (-50% attack for them, +50% defense for you!)
Explore. Now that you have your first city up and running, produce 2-3 warriors to explore the map, you may need more depending on the game mode and/or difficulty, and discover new landmarks, friendly villages, and of course destroying any barbarian village in your way. After a successful attack on a barbarian village, they may grant you with a number of useful bonuses such as gold, technology, units (getting a galley from a barbarian village is a huge boost to your civilization as you can now explore new lands and hunt for artifacts without taking the time from your city to produce one.)
If you manage to find an enemy capital before 2500BC, form an army (this is where multiple warriors comes in handy) and attack. If you're successful than congrats, you now have another useful village to use and exploit, and you are one step closer to winning a domination victory!
Try to build a ship as fast as possible, to get an early advantage. This allows you to search the islands in the ocean for artifacts and get them before the other civilizations find them. If you were lucky enough to obtain a ship from a friendly village or conquered barbarian village, you may skip this step, however,
it may be useful having two ships exploring different directions from your capital. This doubles your chances of being the first to discover any artifacts. It may also be helpful to bring a couple warriors,
in case of barbarian villages on islands.
Research with a strategy in mind. Many techs grant you a bonus for being the first to research them, this bonus may include gold, culture or science bonuses for your cities, even Great People! Being the first to discover a military oriented technology will always grant you one free unit of that technology. (ex: being the first to research gunpowder would grant you a rifleman unit in your capital city.) After a few turns a message will pop up asking you what to research next. Choose Horseriding>>Feudalism, if you want to rush the enemy in the early game. Choose Granary>>Masonry>>Irrigation if you want to focus on city development. However ,make sure you can reach masonry and irrigation first as the give you a free wall (+100% city defense) and +1 pop in each city. Choose Alphabet>>Writing>>Literacy if you want to focus on science development. This will put you towards the front of the tech race and directly leads to mathematics (being able to make catapults-handy!). Additionally, Alphabet grants you the ability to build libraries (build this ASAP as it gives you x2 science in that city), Writing gives you a free spy, and the ability to build them, and reaching Literacy first gives you +1 science in each city. Choose Bronze working>>Iron working, if you want to focus on a balanced military. Bronze working grants you archers and the great wonder Colossus of Rhodes which grants you double trade within the city turning your city into a scientific powerhouse, combined with a library you will far out tech other civilizations in the early and mid game. Bronze Working also grants you barracks (upgrades units to veterans with +50% attack and defense). A barracks plus a Great Leader grants them immediate Elite status, allowing you to build highly specialized armies. Ironworking gives you legions and the ability to work with the iron resource. Unless you see any iron lying around, you may want to skip this and research Alphabet instead.
Use your settler. By now you should have around 100 gold, which gives you a free settler so decide what type of city you want and place it in the appropriate place. If you want a Balanced city: Settle in a place with plenty of easy access to food, trade, and production and if possible next to resources and rivers. These cities are versatile and a good choice for any Civ player. Avoid building too close to your capital city, as in the latter stages of the game, close proximity causes them to compete for resources. It's best to build 5-7 tiles away from your capital, as once a courthouse is built, they won't have to compete for shared resources, and the distance is still small enough that a decent culture can close up the gap with a territory border, preventing unwanted foreign armies from marching through your lands. If you want a Trade Oriented City: Settle your city near 4 or more sea tiles (giving you 8 or more trade) and next to 4 or more food. Then rush or build libraries or markets in the city to double your science or gold. With 8+ trade and a market or a library these cites give you a solid 16 gold or science, every turn. This increases to 24 if you have democracy. Be on the lookout for unique resources for your new city. Building next to a sulfur pool may seem counterproductive in the short run, but building beside it still utilizes the resource below the pool, and guarantees no other civilization will come along and build beside it in the meantime. Once gunpowder is researched, your city can start utilizing the sulfur, granting them +3 production, as well as whatever other buildings and bonuses are in play. Hills/Production Cities: This type of city is not recommend to be built in the early game but effective in the mid to late game. After you have researched Bronze Working and Iron Working you want to select a location that has access to at least 2 grasslands (or 1 grassland and resource that provides food) and is adjacent to a couple of hills(keep it well guarded as enemies GAIN +50% attack from hills. Next research Construction to gain a free workshop(which provides +2 production to hills) and after that immediately start building a barracks to begin your offensive push to capture enemy cities. Alternatively in the late game, when you have researched railroad in you can settle a city next to a mountain range and rush a mine, then build a factory. Now If you city has 3 mountain tiles (each at 1 production, 3 total) followed by an iron mine (now each at 5 production, 15 total) multiplied by a factory (15x2) gives you an amazing 30 production per turn, or 45 if your using the Americans or communism, or 67 if you're using both! Now you can unleash dozens of armies into the world or build wonder after wonder.
Choose a government that will help you achieve your victory. Every type of government has its advantages which can significantly impact your game. Try to get a republic as fast as possible in the early game. This is one of the big advantages the Romans have as a civ. (They start with a republic) Republics allow settler units to be built for only 1 population stat, as opposed to 2. This makes it very easy to expand and maximize production/trade. If you are looking for a technological or economic victory, democracy is a good choice. It increases trade by 50% in any given city, making this victory 50% easier! However, it does not allow the player to declare war so, if you are planning on conquering a new city for your empire, be sure to switch out of this before attacking. Monarchies are great for cultural victories. They have no downsides and double the palace culture in your capital. However, I would only recommend switching if you believe you are finished expanding as a republic. Fundamentalism can help any player achieve a domination victory. If you are at war with a civilization that is about as powerful as you, this form of government can give you an extra stat boost that might just beat out your most challenging opponent. Communism is useful in any late-game. For every victory type except domination, the endgame will result in building a world wonder or space shuttle, which can be pricey. Combining communism with a factory will lead to such a dramatic increase in production that a domination victory is out of the question.
Either build a library or a trading post in each city. This is allows you to stay ahead in the tech race which awards you bonuses for being the first to research the tech. Notable tech bonuses are Irrigation(+1 pop to every city), Industrialization (+5 gold to every city), and Corporation (+5 gold to every city). Building markets allows you to have increased gold production (X2), which can be used to rush building and units, build roads, or can be saved up for an economic victory.
After the library/trading post/market is built, take advantage of the surrounding tiles and build additional buildings to increase your cities overall food, production, science and or culture.
Switch strategies once you have a solid tech lead. Start to focus on a research path that best allows you to begin capturing enemy cities. Choose Masonry>>Writing>>Mathematics, to unlock catapults and begin an early game siege. Catapults have 4 attack and are useful against early game archer armies. Choose Monarchy>>Feudalism>>Religion, to unlock knights and fundamentalism. Knights also have 4 attack but can move 2 spaces making them highly mobile units. Fundamentalism provides +1 attack to every unit causing you knight armies to have 15 attack, however it negates the science bonus from libraries and universities. Choose Iron Working>>University>>Metallurgy>>Steam Power>>Combustion, to unlock cannons and tanks. Cannons (unlocked by Metallurgy) are a powerful mid to late game unit that has 6 whopping attack and Tanks are an extremely powerful late game unit that has 10 attack and 2 movement. These should comprise the majority of your modern army.
Work towards victory. After capturing the majority of enemy cities you should have enough resources to begin working towards your chosen victory type. Whether you choose the path of world domination, economic dominance, cultural victory, or bringing your people into the new world of alpha centauri the rest is up to you.
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