best tips are economic (how to gain money):

- Concentrate on buildings first. Units require upkeep, buildings dont.

- Build Roads & Ports to maximum level, and first. They allow/increase trade. Temples are fast & cheap to maintain order.

- Use peasants to maintain public order and very high tax rate for cities below 6000 population.

- Do not use peasants to maintain public order and very high or high tax rates for cities above 6000 pop.
Use buildings to maintain public order for thse cities.

- A public order of 75% is considered stable. So 80 is more than enough.

- Concentrate on either Barracks, Stables, Ranges OR Smiths, and let each city specialize.

- Place your capital in the 'middle'. This reduces corruption. Otherwise, only Law bonuses reduce corruption. Your capital never experiences corruption.

(Growth rate: you want the combined growth rate in your settlement to arrive at 8% at level 5. This will give you a population of 24000, which are easy to manage, and unlikely to rebel due to squalor penalty to public order.)
- This means: Dont build farms unless the area is poor in farming (ie below 3% base).


This is enough and doesnt need the lame Diplomat strategy to work. You can add Trade Rights, you dont even need to sell them.