I played for fun, but please don't list me in the results, since (1) I'm quite far from being a newbie at this point, and (2) one tactic I used I now think of as exploitative.
I got a two-headed Hindu/Jew hydra going, then expanded peacefully. Caesar adopted Hinduism (my chosen state religion) and I selected him as my best buddy. Endless war began (starting with Mali) right after room ran out; I built all wonders except for the Oracle and the Mahabodhi, and eliminated 10 opponents and about half of the Roman empire before AD 1955, when domination kicked in. Oh, and this was another game in which I had more great engineers than I knew what to do with.
I gave a large number of cities to the Romans later in the game to prevent myself from triggering domination; this wasn't explicitly forbidden, but it soon felt like it violated the spirit of the game, especially after I figured out the rough conditions under which a city would be accepted as a gift.
-- Dark Savant
I got a two-headed Hindu/Jew hydra going, then expanded peacefully. Caesar adopted Hinduism (my chosen state religion) and I selected him as my best buddy. Endless war began (starting with Mali) right after room ran out; I built all wonders except for the Oracle and the Mahabodhi, and eliminated 10 opponents and about half of the Roman empire before AD 1955, when domination kicked in. Oh, and this was another game in which I had more great engineers than I knew what to do with.
I gave a large number of cities to the Romans later in the game to prevent myself from triggering domination; this wasn't explicitly forbidden, but it soon felt like it violated the spirit of the game, especially after I figured out the rough conditions under which a city would be accepted as a gift.
-- Dark Savant