I'm not sure that this will work all the time, but it's working so far for me. Of course, I'm no more than one or two techs ahead at any time, but still, it's nice to be in the lead (and yes, I'm playing on regent).
Ordinarily, I start heading straight for Monarchy, and use temples as my first culture boosting improvement. This time-I decided to go straight for Literature. I started out doing REX, and was able to expand to about 15 cities before running out of room. Also, I started out by jacking science all the way to 100%-it usually gives you a breaking even reading for your income. Also, make sure your capital is fully mined around (don't irrigate unless you absolutely have to) with roads.
When you hit literature, switch whatever is being worked on in the capital to the Great Library, then start building libraries in your other cities (you can insert them in your normal REX strategy). They take a little longer to build (about 10 turns), but under Despotism, you can rush them at the cost of 2-3 lives (god bless Despotism
) *and* they give 3 culture points instead of 2 from the Temple (four turns to first expansion as opposed to five).
Now, after Literature, head for the Republic. Hopefully, you'll get the Great Library buillt right around the same time as you gain the advance. Impotant: Under no circumstances should you switch governments before you finish building the wonder. You'll lose up to six turns that way, and risk losing the wonder.
Anyway, after the wonder is built, switch governments, and start raising taxes to pay for the libraries you've built. In this game (and I could have been lucky), I got all the remaining Ancient Era advances the next turn after switching governments.
So far, I've been remaining one or two advances ahead (which has proved financially lucrative for me). As long as no one hits Education for awhile, I should be alright (the annoying thing is, they all seem to be following my research path. So far I've gained very little from the Great Library in the Middle Ages
).
Like I said, so far I've only done this in one game, but it's worth a second try, IMO.
Marc
