HG -Mike's-Sol-Fundy-Strategy

[ramses II.]

First of all, think of the fact that I'm a newbie in playing deity (=since February 2002).
You need the following WoW:
1. HG
2. MPE (or GB or, even better, both)
3. LH (not a must have, but nice to have)
4. Mike's
5. SoL
The Hanging Gardens help you to expand - you need an economical base for your world conquest.
With Marco Polo you change maps - even if it costs some techs.
Switch to Rep when you get Mike's. Get Theology and Demo - build the SoL - then switch to Fundy.
At that moment your conquest begins.
Early in the game I send 2-3 triremes with diplos on it around the world. Their orders:
1. find new civs (when you didn't manage to get MPE)
2. find advanced tribes
3. find gold
4. find techs
5. find units
6. bribe units
7. bribe cities
8. steal techs
9. open embassies
Each trireme brings me about 3-5 cities, 6-8 NONE-units,
about 2000 gold and so on. It's important for my strategy that I have a city next to every other civ on the map.
When I build the SoL I switch to Fundy (celebrating Fundamentalism - I've got the HG, Mike's and J.S.Bach's - tons of money!). With that money I bribe the other civs.
The first thing I rush build in a bribed city is - a temple, the 2nd and 3rd are diplomats to continue bribing.
In my last game, I bribed the Chinese, the English, the Japanese and the German Civ. Only their capitals were taken by some dragoons after destroying their city walls.
The Spanish were my allies - but they stole tech after tech. My revenge: I subverted their cities
If a civ develops a tech I need for a WoW, I steal it.
I ended that mentioned game with a new personal record of 771% (about 6000 Points) - quite good for a newbie.
While I'm bribing the world, my cities build city improvements to prepare democracy. When I switch to demo, I celebrate for some turns, then I push my research rate.

[LDiCesare]

Why Theology? You don't need it if you go fundy. It gives gold, but you'll drown under gold coins without it.
And yes, city bribing works well... too well. Unless your opponent is in Democracy, in which case your strategy doesn't work. You have to fight (well you can use spies to reduce the cities to size 1 or wall-less before).
Why do you rushbuild temples in bribed cities if you are in fundy? Do you need more money or do you rushbuild it in the first turn because you can't rushbuild a unit?
As for maxing score, yes, keep one civ with one city, then democracy, WLTPD, boost luxuries, build settlers and spread until you are bored.
I remember a civ(1) game where I had the whole world conquered but for a pitiful Washington, that the Americans defended with phalanxes while my tanks waited just outside the city limit to prevent them from getting a settler (or anything) out. I can't remember my score, though.

[ramses II.]

I need Theology cause I don't want to stay 8in Fundy.
In my last game I made more than 2000 gold a turn.
And even if then enemy civs have democracy, they will switch to monarchy, fundamentalism or something else, cause they want to fight me - et voila! And if they don't have fundamentalism, I'll give it to them!
In my last game I bribed the Greek, the Spanish, the Sioux (except one pet city). The Germans had been wiped out by barbs early in the game, the Americans and the Zulus had been wiped out by me.

[Messer Niccolò]

Ramses, personally I don't like Fundy victories, too many cities, too many units, too many diplos/spies (well... spies are never too much...).
Just destroy walls, go with your powerful army, conquest or bribe and add a city...
It's not my playstyle, I prefer to reach the stars but it's a viable strategy.

Btw, good point the Democracy --> Monarchy/Fundy, I've never noticed it - it seems reasonable - , but again, probably is because I'm not a warmonger...

[ramses II.]

@Messer Niccolò
I have a lot of cities, but no powerful - I don't need it. A diplo/spy is more worth than ten riflemen or dragoons.
Only the capitals are taken by some military units - after destroying their walls.
And I don't take the pet city - I want to win the space race - more points!
Sure, it's hard to manage more than 100 cities, but it's also fun - that's the reason I fought for: to get these cities.
And, if needed, I can rush build a huge (let's say 300-500 different units) in a couple of turns!
I don't like wars, too. But sometimes those stupid AI civs make me angry...

[Messer Niccolò]

teach them which is the real faith then !

[ramses II.]

Yes, I'm a believer!

[geofelt]

I do much the same thing, with this addition: As soon as I get SOL, I go to democracy and celebrate until most cities stop growing. I then revert to fundy while I build markets and aqueducts, getting ready for a second round of celebration growth.