Just curious as to what playing styles other people have.

What civilization do you usually play as (or what traits do you like to use the most)?

How do you usually try to win the game?

What great wonders do you usually try for?

Generally, I have to have industrious. I can't stand taking forever to build roads and improvements. I usually also take scientific or militaristic if I'm going for conquest, or commercial if I'm going for wonder or cultural victory. I like being the Ottomans for conquest since they have one of the best (if not the best) units from the late middle ages until the late industrial era, the Sipathi. If I'm not going for conquest, I take any civ that has a combination of the traits I like.

I always have conquest turned on, but occasionally I'll try to do a game of just survival and go for a cultural or wonder victory.

I try to get all the wonders if I can. Even if it's something I can easily live without, denying my opponents the benefits make them just as good. The ones I focus on are the ones that benefit your entire civilization rather than just a single city, unless of course I'm doing cultural and am focusing on a single city win.

So how about the rest of you Civ III junkies?

I use a lot of politics.
In the beginning of the game I expand at all cost.
After that, I pay frequently a low tribute to other civs (20 gold or so) to keep in good touch.
This lowers the chance that they will attack me instead of others.
The other civs are then at war(waste their time on it), and I can use my resources to devellop my civ, so on the long term I will end up stronger.

If I want to attack a civ with allies, I sign protection pact with those allies and declare war on that civ.
Then I wait till that civ attacks me. That way the other nations will help me instead of him because HE was the aggressor.

I usually take Industrious and/or Commercial civs. When I start out, I'll build a few cities, then immediately go to war on my nearest neighbor or two. After that, I concentrate on having trade alliances with almost everyone so I can peacefully expand until I get Rifle Cavalry (quite possibly the best unit ever, for it's time and how fast you can get them). Then it's back to war, attempting to kill off a neighbor or two, and possibly attacking a few others to cut them down a bit.

Expantionist and Indutrial civs.

I try and make good with everyone else so that if someone (typically the Zulu's) declares war on me, I can bribe all the other civs to declare war on the Zulu's.

Quick, fun, and painless.

I'm a micro player. I like making all my cities in good spots and build a good infrastructure for moving troops as well as lots of terrain improvements. Usually go Chinese and attack the nearest enemey for some quick workers and money. I like building a massive army and fighting it out in the industrial age.

I remember my fiancee getting me hooked on the game. She'll build cities in only places that have excellent production potential (i.e. shield grassland, any place that has luxury or bonus resources, etc.) If a spot had a strategic resource, but it was in the middle of a desert or mountains, she would refuse to build a city at or near it and instead would just use colonies which would either result in some barbarians coming in and ripping up the road, or the computer building a city on that road.

At first I played the same way but I didn't know better. But now, if I see some real estate that I want and I can see an opponent starting to build in that direction, I'll spam a bunch of settlers and have them build junk cities just for the purpose of putting that area within my territory. I'll hurry up temples to get them to expand quickly and seal the in-between area off from my opponents and then build there at my leisure.

She can't stand it when I do that because she hates cities that get lousy production. But I figure, if I'm a government that uses forced labor like Communism or Fascism(my favorite addition to Conquests btw), I'll just irrigate the heck out of the place and hurry production on stuff, since there is no corruption with food. It works pretty well.

I try to culture-flip cities that I want. Its difficult and doesnt always work so I try to get espionage as fast as possible so I can turn cities to my side without having to fight. Of course I build up a huge military and stay on the defensive until the AI gets restless (around the Industrial age) and a global war starts.

And I love Privateers. I blockade as many cities as I can with dozens of privateers and attack my "allies" shipping. Hehe and they dont even know its me.