start off choosing the liberty policy to help keep social policy cost low. For tech prioritize library , trade routes and then National college. Because this is a liberty opener building monuments early might be beneficial.

* open liberty and go collective republic, citizenship , representation , expand, then collective rule (3 cities total at this point)
* get national college before your 3rd or 4th city depending on the circumstances
* get 4 cities total trying to build near a mountain for an observatory
* try to build the national college in a city that will also have an observatory

Around turn 140 the liberty tree should be finished, choose a * scientist as a great person and use improve a tile in a city that will build an observatory

Focus on trying to hyper grow the cities. This will hopefully pay off later increasing the value of your civ overall in terms of workable tiles and specialists. After national college tech go to engineering then drama and poetry, civil service , education and try to time a spy to rush into acoustics while switching towards production techs.

The Asethetics social policy tree will be the next to begin. Unlocking Fine Arts while keeping cities happy can snowball into more policies.

* build either the writers guild or artists guild in separate cities so they dont effect growth too much
* build aqueducts, markets, and coliseums before workshops
* Build the Sistine Chapel in Paris
* get 4 composite bowmen to hold off the AI

After acoustics then focus on production and tech up to machinery. After machinery focus back on culture and b-line for Archaeology. There are many wonders along the way so make sure to watch the spies to help open key techs. Now that chivalry is open start placing down the chateaus.

* open the Exploration policy tree so that you have the ability to build the Louvre
** time a great engineer or scientist to help rush the Louvre
* After cities are at around 10 population switch them to start producing great artists and writers from the guilds.

Take notice who is getting strong and who is starting to crumble. Build an army for defense or to take over another nation. The next tech focus is gun powder, economics then fertilizer. These techs will help with general growth and defense. Sprinkling in some archaeologist to get a head start on the works of art is also a good idea but not the priority.

The policy in aesthetics, Flourishing of the Arts, gives extra culture from cities that have a world wonder. Opening up rationalism, commerce or patronage can grant an opportunity to build a world wonder without competition.

* build about 4 of your special musketeer unit when you unlock the tech
* museums to make sure you have enough places to put the works of art if necessary
* because of the focus on the bottom part of the tech tree try to use a spy to unlock scientific theory

Next tech focus is Radio, use oxford university to open up the modern era. After radio you tech to railroad. This will allow you to build Neuschwanstein which will pair well with the aesthetic and rationalism social policies. This also will help build defenses as the dynamite tech is on the way. Focus on finishing the Exploration policy to open up extra works of art. In rationalism one good policy to get is secularism as it will make all of the great work slots much more valuable.

There are three important areas to establish at this moment. 1 is the tourism, preparing for hotels and getting art works where possible. 2 is world deplomacy, take note of relationship around the world and start to consider what civ might be difficult to become influential with. 3 is strategic resources, these are crucial to buildings and defenses and will be something to seek to survive to the late game.

* try to either get Eiffel tower or Broadway in Paris
* build castles to take advantage of Neuschwanstein
* build 4 artillery
* use your spies to try to unlock biology and refrigeration
* choose Freedom as your ideology

Now that nearly all the wonders are out of the way its time to turn this culture into tourism. Hotels and air ports will be needed so plastics and radar or the next techs to unlock. The end game should be pretty obvious at this point. If oil is available consider a late game war to harass an opponent that might be tough to influence or that might win through science. After unlocking the tourism boost from Freedom broadcast towers finish exploration and focus on science and military.

- In case Autocracy is picked unlock: Futurism, Industrial Espionage, Fortified Borders,Militarism, Police State, Cult of Personality

As trade off for not building a national college early grow a large population to make the science value of each library as high as possible. At the same time ensure that luxuries are available to keep happiness high. When expanding choosing a location with ocean access is important for later game war. With honor unlocked farming barbarians will collect a good amount of culture.

[UPG] Unlock the tradition policy first then honor then go back to tradition.
** expand once then build an army with two cities once libraries are constructed and composite bowmen are unlocked
[UPG] build towards the civil service, construction technologies to get composite bowmen and pikemen. Unlock sailing and calendar for plantations and traderoutes.

Start an early war to add some experience to the army and test the political atmosphere. Make sure to focus on city state relationships as they might provide important strategic resources and help keep the nation happy. As a secondary focus build markets and cultural buildings when possible. All of this must be done with an honest read of how much experience will be achieved. Some times its just best to bline for the national college and wait for an armory to start training most of the army. If this is the case consider attacking a city state to get a quick third city and capture some strategic land.

[UPG] research philosophy, chivalry, banking, and machinery tech, and metal casting
* When chivalry is unlocked build some knights and keep them alive to upgrade throughout the game
* build a barracks and before producing units

This is the stage of the game where battle choice should be made carefully and for strategic planning reasons. Find a civ that seems particularly weak and try to have another civ help in the war. Some considerations are what are the current diplomatic relations with the civ you are attacking, what are your relations with the other civs and what are the strategic locations to be gained by conquering the civ. This war will focus on land as the sea techs are not opened till later.

* once a hanse is built make city state trade routes a priority
[UPG] research chemistry, economics, education, and Military Science, navigation
** Open Rationalism and try to use an engineer get the porcelain tower, leaning tower of pisa, or Brandenburg Gate

Now focus should be on diversifying the army to handle the terrain. Iron and coal are two important resources to have. Wars should be decided on how to obtain these resources. As cities are being taken once they are out of resistance it can be helpful to send a food or production caravan to them. Careful city growth helps the overall production of the army civ growth. There are many things to juggle during this time. Culture and happiness should be maintained. Opera houses, writers, and artists guilds should be made use of when possible. If in war city growth might need to be held back to maintain the current happiness state.

research dynamite, biology, and flight
* use the oxford college to open up modern era through flight, this will also speed up unlocking autocracy
[UPG] use first Autocracy policies for happiness
[UPG] unlock Secularism from rationalism tree and arrange specialists for science and production

Ideology choice should make the landscape pretty clear on who are enemies and who are allies. Consider taking city states if they are strongly allied with opponents. Another consideration is oil and aluminium resources for the rest of the army production. Analyze the victory options of the other civs and what cultures are creating the most unhappiness pressure. Some capitals might be really easy to take due to location and the overall military output of the civ. Take these opportunities when possible while maintaining defenses at home.

* building castles and arsenals will provide happiness and defense if the Autocracy policy is selected
[UPG] research radar, refrigeration, and combined arms

Keep tabs on victory progress of other civs as well as which civs might pose a threat to the back flank while marching the army to victory. Keep establishing city state trade routes to get the hanse production boost. It might be necessary to take a detour from investing in army tech and revisit radio and plastics. Broadcast towers and research labs can grant that extra boost if some of the other civs are still more advanced.

A couple of things to consider in late war strategies is not trying to go all out and defeat the opponent. First is establishing a good supply line to replenish fallen units and rebase the airforce. From there attack weak points. Panzers with their extra movement speed can easily pillage vital resource tiles in enemy cities and the move away to safety. This will slowly remove the ability for the civ to recreate key defenses.

[UPG] research radio, rocketry, lazers then nanotechnology
[UPG] time technologies to make use of final rationalism policy