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[platypotamus]

The only real "key" first-to tech is liberalism, and you want to be getting it in the mid 1200s on Monarch at the latest, though I've seen it slip to the 1400s before on Emperor on rare occasion. :lol

Well, depending on the situation, getting a religion can be pretty key too.

And actually, on the last game, I tried a different strategy that made all of the "first-to" GP's pretty appealing:

Have as many golden ages as possible. I did this as Montezuma (who isn't philosophical), so it was less than ideal, but it was on a lower difficulty level than I'm used to and I felt like experimenting.

Got the Mausoleum of Mausalos, which is pretty key, + 50% GA length.

Got the Taj Mahal (free GA).

Used ALL of my GPs for golden ages (except two redundant ones, an extra GP founded a shrine, and an extra GS built an academy).

While the game definitely could have gone better were it not for some flubs on my part, I had 6 Golden Ages ( I think, Taj + 5 from GPs). 12 turns each (Maus of Maus), that was 72 turns of golden agity goodness (game ended in the early 300s turnwise, so somewhere about 25% of the time I was golden aging). I deliberately developed in a fairly non-conventional (for me) way, with lots of windmills, watermills, and even some workshops.... a GA gives you an extra hammer or coin on any tile that produces at least one, so you want as many tiles as possible producing at least one of each to maximize their effectiveness.

In my final golden age, after reassigning my workers to the good plots of land, I saw an increase in 60 gold per turn! BtS allows you to infinitely change Civics without revolution during GAes too, which was also pretty helpful, it was like I was super Spiritual through the whole game.


Anyway, that was an overly longwinded way of saying that the free specialists can be helpful!

 

[Fragamemnon]

I've done the Golden Age spamming thing before too. It's really nice, but when I do it I like to do it when I'm running with a Philosophical leader. It's just so much more efficient that way.

I like to get an early religion if I start out with Mysticism as a rule. The extra early happiness and then building cost reduction with Organized Relgion are really, really nice to have early. If I don't have mysticism to start out, I usually get my religion via lightbulbing my first or second scientist for Philosophy if I haven't had a relgion spread to me by a neighbor (or conquered a Civ that had a religion in their towns).

 

[zoku88]

Need any pointers? I'd be happy to give out advice on the game, but it's really helpful for me to understand what parts of the game you are struggling with so I can be specific in my tips.

I actually know what I need to do. I'm waaay too passive. I've only won by conquest once, actually (or was it domination?) All others have been diplomatic victories, pretty much.

EDIT: Although, it seems as though I really suck at getting Great People.