Meh I don't like Civ IV that much. Civ III and especially Civ II are waaay better IMO.

Civ 2 was my favorite.  But after playing 4 I can't go back to it.

It's one game i like more i think because of the nostalgia factor.

I mean.. as fun as they were... and i'd still be playin civ 2 if 3 and 4 didn't come out....

but.. I couldn't go back to Civ 2 and it's strange proclivites.  Like Greek Phanalax's taking out Sherman tanks.

One time, a warrior took out my modern armor.

How early are you getting crushed? Or, how are you getting crushed?

Well, if it's combat, be sure to learn how it works. Most importantly, the way stacking & defense works. That means utilize high defense tiles, and mixed armies (to counter different types of attackers).

If you're behind on tech / military, try to have your cities specialized. Focus some on commerce (cottage spam!), some on military (mines & farms), and only build the buildings that are necessary for each.

... Ah, screw it. There's too much in this game to explain, check this site out for tons of stuff about the game, if you're interested: http://www.civfanatics.com/civ4

I've spent ridiculous amounts of time playing this game. I recall a few multiplayer games with my bro ended up being over 20 (yeah, no kidding) hours total. That's like, nearly a full console RPG right there. Over the summer we'd start up a game, and it'd often take a week to finish (few hours a day). Crazy stuff.

edit: This is why I miss PC gaming. Feels like Blizzard are the only ones left making stuff I'm interested in.

I once had the Marathon speed on a Huge Tectonics. At the end it was 34 hours of gameplay. I even turned off the "show enemy/allied movements."

Maybe you're trying to build a Utopian paradise? Play more aggresively.

there's a number, which I think is Power (there's a graph for it), that the AI will use to decide if will attack your not. you should try to keep it higher than the AI's. other than that, if you have the patience/time, you should go over to www.civfanatics.com and read some tips there.

I had that happen more then once.

I'm not joking when i said i played the heck out of Civ 2. 

I'd either play the regular game or the WW2 Scenario... I loved playing the Nuetrals... and turning them into a power house.  Was so much fun capturing the russian capital causing them to split in half.  Outright taking out everyone else.

Or being the turks and just backending the Nazis.

I love civ.

You need to focus on expansion early and friendly, at least that's my focus. However, its not a bad idea to expand via war either. Just remember that civ4 penalizes you for being a warmonger by having other nations not like you and potentially attack you.

Civ 4 is absolutely fantastic, and there are many ways to play the game (although the highest 2 difficulties really only have 1 or 2 tactics).

Also, are you playing with any of the expansion packs? I mainly ask because before Beyond the Sword, the AI had issues (unless you download Blake's AI mod).

I would really suggest reading some strategy guides at Civfanatics.