My first game on Emperor difficulty! I decide early on I want to go for a diplomatic win since I've never done that before. Sorry for no screenshots, but I don't have any webspace to put them at.

3950 BC - Found Paris on the tile south of the starting location. Over the next few turns I create a warrior who goes exploring and meets the English. Another warrior is sent west and meets Babylon. I decide to go for zero research and trade techs back and forth.

2800 BC - Found Orleans further down the river. Hook up the furs. Spot lots of other luxuries and decide to forego the military and rush settlers as quickly as possible, using Paris mostly.

2510 BC - Sneak a warrior past England and contact the Americans. Trade Mysticism and 40G for the wheel which improves him to Cautious. Buy 2 workers from England!

1790 BC - Hammurabi demands 20G tribute and I pay it grudgingly since he would stomp me otherwise. Orleans gets pounded by barbarians but I had spent all my money and only lost some shields.

I continue to expand and eventually get the incense by Babylon and the silks south of England without going to war. I've never seen so many luxuries!

1200 BC - Umm, Hammurabi, what are those archers up to? He sneak attack me and I barely fend him off. It is not a very interesting war though and he calls for peace in 925 BC.

710 BC - Revolt to a Republic and plan to stay there until democracy.

550 BC - Here is where I think I made a mistake. I am easily keeping up with tech by buying it off other civs. I decide to go for a tech lead by doing my own research, not a smart move I think. I research Monotheism and switch back to no science in 270 BC. Try to go for Sistine.

110 AD - Avignon in the east flips to the Americans! :(

310 AD - Abe demands TM and 41G. I refuse and he declares war. Within a few turns I recapture Avignon and go for Buffalo, the cursed city that flipped it in the first place!

510 AD - Still haven't captured Buffalo and I lost Sistine's Chapel, so I content myself with Leonardo's. Hammurabi asks for a donation and I oblige since most of my forces are in the east.

530 AD - We finally capture Buffalo and sign a peace treaty.

870 AD - France becomes a democracy. Abe and I now have ROP and he is only annoyed with me. Babylon is cautious. Everyone else loves glorious France!

960 AD - With steam power, I start the rail net.

1180 AD - Here's where every else loses the game and I win. Babylon declares war on India. India, Iroquois, and England ally against the behemoth that is Babylon and I watch as troops march freely across my lands. I pull strings as necessary to prolong the conflict and make sure everyone loses. Several civs drop out of democracy at some point during the game.

1400 AD - By this time the other civs have been in and out of war while I build in calm. Trade iron and horses to Abe for spices and he becomes gracious. Hammurabi and Ghandi are gracious. Everyone else is polite. I don't even feel like I tried that hard to make them like me! :)

India starts Hover so I immediately buy Electronics and switch a prebuild over. Later England and India decide to attack Babylon. I get ROP with everyone to watch the fun!

My infrastructure is solid so I start producing military. Between the squandering of units done by the AI and my powerhouse cities, I am the strongest in the world.

Babylon fights off the alliance against it again and starts marching upon England with an SOD. I have a settler ready to go in case some land is umm liberated, but those culture boundaries expand just as I get the settler to a neutral location! Grrrrrrr

Shortly before the end, I accidentally let a palace prebuild complete! I was building UN in Paris but decide to swap it back to Palace and start the UN elsewhere. Yes I know it was silly but Joanie insisted!

I think the win was only delayed six turns. Diplo win in 1575 AD, score 3897, everyone votes for me except Hammurabi. I didn't even bother with bribes since everyone loved me. Really I was surprised that I did not really have to fawn over the AI to get a diplo win, just played very honorably, made some non-miserly (but decent) deals and only had to fight a couple times. It was easy to get help for those fights too.

Overall, a very enjoyable game and my first Emperor game. A solid win! ;) Must have been that lurking of the RBD threads. Anxious to read the other reports.