[akots]

Actually, the game is quite difficult to beat and even at Prince level there is no easy win if not going for military or cultural route. Military games tend to be easier on low difficulty levels. Research first to macemen and may be cats, build a few (the more the merrier), expand capturing enemy cities then research to cavalry and go and kill everyone. Slavery civic is a great help since you can pop-rush a lot of stuff without doing much damage to growth

Game opening is quite critical and sometimes is very difficult especially on higher levels on normal speed. And it seems there is a sort of universal solution for money problems: first, go kill some neighbor and get some cash for razing his cities or also spam cottages. There is no really universal strategy however and it all depends on map type. Especially the opening moves. Getting Civil Service from Oracle might be critical to get early advantage and farming great people (caste system civic) is also important very early in the game.

But this is not a game for casual play, sometimes it requires a lot of effort to make the ends meet. Civ3 was an easier game overall and more enjoyable imho.