Okie this post clarifies two three things –
a) Civilization IV (Civ IV) is the greatest PC strategy game ever…or, till Civ Revolutions hits the stores 
b) Civ IV fanatics forum is better than my weight in gold for info on strategy to play this game
c) (Edit) This guide works till Monarch level, eagerly awaiting to try on Immortal & Deity levels
Now this walkthrough assumes that you are sick and tired of being rated as Dan Quayle, Ethelred the Unready or Warren Harding in most of your peacenik tech-leadership based games (max level would be Noble, if you are lucky) and want to smash a few mental and game-imposed barriers!
So first, take a proper world to showcase your first battle and earn your spurs – Tiny Pangea with Sea Level at High. (the high sea-level makes less land available for all and sundry and hence a much tenser fight)
Second, choice of Civ – Any Aggressive Civ would do, as long as you remember that this game is not about commerce, religion or diplomacy. Whoever would bring a sword to a gunfight would hear appropriate music, obviously (Though most of the times, it’s actually bringing an archer to a swordfight) Even in aggressive Civs, I favor Julius Caeser ’cause of just one reason – That Praetorian is good for like…forever – till beginning of game to its end-by time (unless you play like a d00fus and end up fighting Riflemen with it)
Third, choice of enemy Civs – If you wanna have a relatively easy time, get Gandhi, Washington & other peace-loving expansive/industrious morons from outer space. These guys would be so far ahead of you in tech, but would have an Axeman & an Archer to fight your mean Praetorian Dirty Dozen. If you want to spice things up, get Isabella (ah! The prettiest woman in Civ IV) or Alexander – totally unreliable aggressive Civs who will try to stab you in the back even though you are their Blood brothers who share their faith.
Fourth – what? Lets get started on our pwnage 
Now in-game strategy – Game Speed (normal)
#1 Establish Rome. See, if there is a 3F tile near 1 movement of Settler. If you settle on that tile, worker gets created on the 12th turn rather than on the 15th.
#2 Tech Tree research – Bronze Working>The Wheel |(16 turns)| >
Agriculture (for building up cities)>Metal Casting >
Masonry (in the off-chance that you have Stone/Marble nearby)>Animal Husbandry>Pottery
Now, we get a choice, if the scores indicate that you’re still on top, go for Mysticism(6)>Polytheism(12)>Priesthood(12) to get Oracle and free tech (Code of Laws/Metal Casting). But even otherwise, it’s easy to win, so never worry. Go for Writing>Alphabet and start your technology trade to fill up your non-researched techs.
#3 Production Order (Rome) – W>S>W>B>P>P>P>P>P>P
#4 New Cities – Chop forests. Without discrimination, chop/steal-chop everything you can. Each forest chop would yield 25-30 hammers (pre-mathematics era). Chop Worker 2, chop settler & chop barracks. Wait for Praetorians though. Let the city grow. Also initially, cities need more food to grow rather than hammers from nearby hills. Around Rome, create a forest of farms in the fat cross, till the population increases every 4 turns. New cities can be located on top of special resources, but location also probably depends more on map than any flat rule of thumb. Create road between cities ASAP.
#5 Production Order (Antium et al) – B>W>A>A>A>A (Axemen for a change they make good defensive units)
#6 Automate workers around 800 BC; keep a couple of them free for chopping requirements.
#7 Create your first army of Praetorians and attack nearest City(s), preferably the aggressive Civs rather than Civs up in the points ladder make more sense to attack. Raze towns, unless you seem to be getting some strategic advantage from it
#8 Try to destroy your first enemy Civilization before 1 AD. Gives a better psychological boost and more importantly, paves way for atleast a triple-promoted (10+ Exp points) unit (which is important for a heroic epic)
#9 Tech Tree Research – Mathematics (trade)>Construction (for War Elephants & Catapults)
Alphabet>Literature (Heroic Epic, +100% prod rate for Mil Units)
Code of Laws>Civil Service (For Macemen which are for your final enemies, circa 1000 AD)
Machinery>Guilds>Gunpowder (for an unlikely endgame where you have to use riflemen to clean up your mess)
#10 Make your stack o’ doom and go killing. Destroy a Civ in phases – Kill 2 cities – hold – recover – Peace – Kill again (repeat till Civ rolls over its back). ‘Course, always keep a lookout for game maths and chances of success. In all your battles, the game probability score might be wrong about 4 % of the time (if the difference is less than 1 between the attacker & defender and less than once in a while if the difference is greater than 1)
And you should be done! Any halfway decent AI can never make you sweat over this esp on smaller maps. On larger maps, you just have to hold out till you’ve built the West Point and/r built/conquered the Pyramid/Pyramid-making Civ. The important thing to realize here is that this game is really short, you haven’t really made a GP-farm (great person) and you haven’t divided your cities into Commerce/Science cities, but it would still hold good for Domination/Conquest victories. And as any halfway enthusiastic Civ player knows, winning in style in CIv IV beats anything else.
The author wishes all budding CIv IV players a happy ending with Augustus Caesar for company
