Money, Technology, Production and the Starting Location
From a friend...
Three things seem to be important: money, technology and production. You can usually find a location for your city where ONE of those factors will be met, but all three is hard. If you can, however, excel in just one of these areas, you can then go to the bargaining table with something to offer. … But the problem is, in the end I was only on par with the other civs in terms of military and technology. I excelled in no one area. My mistake? Not building my army to a sufficient level to continue the success I had achieved earlier. My attitude after the first German city was taken was sort of a "OK, I know now I can defeat them if I have to, so I'm going to neglect the military and really start building up my cities." But HEY, these cities of mine were worthless from the start in terms of production and resources, so what has changed? Not a thing. FATE had placed me in a lousy strategic position from the start, and about the only thing I COULD produce were military units. The only logical thing to do was flood the world with troops and let my enemies give me what I want or die.
Moral of the story: try to excel in one thing, not many things.
And let that one thing be the most logical, given your starting position.
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