I'm finally doing well in a game! I built seven cities early on and started to establish culture and a strong economy before a military, because there were no other civilizations around to threaten me with war. I was Alexander and the Greek Empire, though I don't think it really matters who you build a civilization under... It all depends on how an individual person chooses to play. The only thing I'm still having difficulty doing is balancing all the cities. It's hard to keep track of all my people, all my buildings, etc. I keep the workers automated to build improvements around the city and I keep the warriors and cannons (all military units) "on guard" until I'm at war. There's no sense in having them around if they're not serving a purpose. [Disclaimer: That is not a perspective I have in everyday life, only in the game.] I'm still reluctant to allow open borders, but I do eventually allow them after I build a strong relationship with other civilizations. If they're "friendly" to me--or even "pleased"--I usually allow open borders. Never if they're "cautious" or anything below that. Rather than allow open borders, I would like to trade with the other civilizations because it's hard to keep track of the other people. That's usually what I do unless I'm happy with the relationship with other civilizations. In this particular game I'm playing right now, I'm in the year 1852 and I've built railroads and oil wells, so I guess I'm in pretty good shape. I've started to build science observatories in two of my cities, and academies are built in all of my cities. I inevitably (and somewhat accidentally) founded three religions: Judaism, Taoism, and Christianity. What an awful mix. But then I opted for free religion. It helped because each city had a different religion, so I built temples and monestaries in most of the cities which raised culture and happiness. Most of my cities are at 80% happiness; two are at 60%, but I'm working on those specifically to raise those numbers.