Posted 23 April 2005 - 09:14 AM
It is a fairly difficult game until you get the hang of it. I haven't played it in a few years, but lets see...
If you do abuse Right of Passage, or attack without declaring war, you'll have trouble getting all the other civilisations to trust you.
Use the inbuilt encyclopedia thing, as well as the advisors and so forth.
For your first few games, turn Barbarians off. That makes things much more relaxed at the beginning, and means you don't have to protect your interior towns as much.
At the beginning of the game, explore your surroundings as quickly as possible. Also, get the ability to sail through the ocean as soon as possible. That way you get first pick of any luxuries/resources/native villages, etc.
Hope those help a bit, hehe.