The coders greatly weakened chariots in Civ II so your strategy is a little harder to pull off. They saw you coming!
A couple thoughts:
Funny how many people think that cheating is acceptable to win the game (i.e., the save before attempt something dangerous strategy). Let’s see all you macho types win the game playing by the rules. In this regard, I love Alpha Centauri’s Ironman mode, which forces a complete shutdown on save, making this tactic much less fun to engage in.
To find out how to win at Civ or Civ II, review the file ‘Rules.txt’. You will see that the civilization type (in Civ II at least) that has positive values in each choice of how to behave is the Civilized, Aggressive, Expansionist culture (I believe the Germans are set this way in Civ II; I long since modified this file to my tastes, for balance and fun). Too militaristic? You get everyone wanting to squash you. Too Passive? You get squeezed out. To Perfectionist? You don’t have the resources late in the game to keep up.
Choice of wonders is crucial; and varies depending on such thins as map-size, number of civs competing against, terrain types, etc. Ships are way more important with archipelagic worlds than with massive continents. The Great Library is useless with fewer than 5 competing civilizations. Etc.
Finally, you MUST keep in mind that a) as noted, the computer civs ‘cheat’ (that is, they don’t have to produce as much to crank out a new unit/building, they don’t have to grow as much food to grow in size, etc.) and b) the will ALL hate you if you get too dominant, so eventually the day to fight will come. Be prepared, be very prepared. 
Your OP made me fire up Civ 1 again, and I’m in the 5th hour of an Emperor-level game versus 5 civs. Thus far, I’m holding my own (I got lucky and killed off the Greeks and the Egyptians early) but I’m having to use extreme measures - diplomats everywhere, cities packed into areas with one space of land between them, actually thinking for several minutes between turns, etc. Currently, I may be able to fight a defensive battle and make it to the end with tech, but I don’t know - if Ghandi nukes me like in the last game…ugh.
Yep, that Ghandi is a real meany
I still remember the first time I saw one of my cities explode in a little puff of smoke and wondering how in the heck that last little Greek city still fighting with sticks managed to nuke me. I finally figured out I had a nuclear meltdown. I haven’t had a nuclear war lately.
I’ve defeated both Civ and Civ II at the Emperor and Diety highest levels and it’s simply the greatest computer game ever made, so I wanna yap about it. Herein are my words of wisdom.
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Startup. I shall disagree with Zor slightly and say you need an ideal starting location ON THE FIRST TURN. (Sometimes you can still move a space or two because you landed on a river.) If the starting location isn’t perfect, forget it. Bison or whales are the preferred startup resource. Start over if you don’t get a perfect startup. Every turn counts. Evey single sheaf of wheat counts. There is NO room for error at the highest levels.
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Expansion
Expansion should be constant. Grab, grab, grab at first. Pump out settlers. Use militia to explore. Forget trying to play the one or two strong city tactic at the highest levels. Your enemies will grow too large and they will swallow you up.
- Wonders
My preferred early wonders are the Colossus and Great Wall. Colossus is, IMO, wildly underrated, and I always get it. It’s one of the earliest Wonders you can build, it helps in research AND tax base, and it’s a cheap Wonder. Always build it.
In Civ II, later on, try to nab King Richard’s Crusade and Leonardo’s Workshop, and one of the two science multipliers, either Copernicus’s Observatory or Newton’s Colelge (if you can get both, wow.)
- Money
Don’t go too far in sacrifing tax for science. Money comes in handy. Diplomats with pockets stuffed with gold can reverse a key battle by turning an enemy unit. Cash reserves can deliver Wonders just under an opponent’s delivery time. Money’s a flexible tool and can save your ass in a lot of situations.
- Diplomats
Diplomats combined with money mean instant, free armies without the bother of spending city-turns building them. When the enemy comes to wipe you out, greet him with a bag of cash and watch in joy as enemy armies are rent asunder. I don’t even know what “Rent asunder” means.
The key with diplomats and money is that they are a significant resource multiplier. Consider a Knight worth 60 shields (I think) being produced in a city with 6 excess shields per turn. By ripping off another civilization for the Knight, you expend money but you not only save 60 shields, you save a significant amount of build time. The same city can build a marketplace in less time, providing an extra 10-15 turn jump on extra money production. Remember, shields are basically irreplaceable and once they’re used they’re gone, but money’s much more flexible. Steal, steal, steal, steal, steal. By purchasing your army rather than building it, you give your cities a huge “Boost” in production by eliminating as many armies as possible from their production time.
- Trade
Zor is right. In Civ II, trade separates the masters from the amateurs. Couldn’t agree more. Trade like a Ferengi on crack.
(BTW, you Master of Orion players: if you’re not trading with every other civilization in the game, financially and research-wise, you just aren’t getting everything out of them you can.)
One thought is to play on Emperor level with the fewest amount of opponents possible. With any luck, both of them will start out pretty close to where you start out, and you can overrun them reasonably quickly. That’s how I beat Emperor level the first time. Then I added one more opponent and beat the Emperor level again. Haven’t had any luck with adding more opponents, though.
I love that line 
About trade strategy, of course the ideal is to have your largest cities trading with large forgein cities that are a good distance away. At what point is it a good idea to start trade within your own civilization? Do you send a destroyer with a trade transport, or just let them go and hope an enemy doesn’t sink it?
It is worth trading among you own cities first rather than plotting a carvan invasion that might fail. Remember that trade will increase among cities overall – even if your city A trades with your city B and B trades with enemy city C, A will get a net effect from B’s increased trade with C. The “one time payment” might be less but the needn’t be your primary concern. Any trade is good trade.
In other words, don’t be too much like a ferengi.
“The speed of technological advancement isn’t nearly as important as short-term quarterly gains.” – Quark
Seems like the Emperor knocked Madhatter off this civilization
For Civ 1, I relied on settlers, diplomats and caravans. My best scores were over 450% (and of course us ‘real men’ only save at the end of a session!).
On Civ 2 (Deity), my mate Mike sends out both his settlers to hit huts. Appparently you can’t get barbarians until you have built a city. (I don’t think this is a ‘real man’ technique ).
In both games I found it useful to enter huts with a diplomat, ready to bribe resulting barbarians. They were always cheap, and if you were exploring behind an foreign city, then they had no home base. this meant they didn’t cost anything, and didn’t cause unhappiness.
Now if only I could finish Heroes of Might and Magic 3…
My strategy (by which I’ve beaten Emporer level, Huge map, 7 opponents):
Build your first city within the first few turns of starting. That city, and each following city, should follow the following build list: Warrior*, Settler, Phalanx, Settler, Phalanx, Settler, Wonder. Each Settler save the last goes out to start a new city (which follows the same pattern); the last Settler sticks around to improve the land around the city. The Warrior* explores, the Phalanxes defend. Once the Wonder is built, disband the exploring unit to build Horsemen** (or, should you actually be involved in a nasty war, a real unit). Then build whatever you need based on the city- Temples, trade units, Libraries, etc.
Your initial research priority is Monarchy (with a side to Map Making, especially if it turns out you’re on a small island/continent). Follow this with Philospohy (with a side to Masonry and Pottery, so you can vie for some Wonders if necessary), then Monotheism (you can never get Michelangelo’s Chapel early enough), then Invention.
The most important early Wonders are the Colossus (boosts Trade; add in Copernicus’ Observ. and Newton’s College, and the Science potential is staggering) and the Hanging Garden (expanding a lot means you’ll need happiness). Don’t fight too hard for the other early Wonders; save your strength for the mid-game Wonders. As alluded to earlier, Leonardo’s Workshop and Michelangelo’s Catherdral are the most important; second comes the Statue of Liberty (Democracy is a mid-game advance; get the Wonder early and switch to Communism- no corruption at all, and you only have to pay an extra food for each Settler).
With this, you should be in fine kettle for a mid-game explosion. Hitting Gunpowder and following it up with a fast rise through Chivalry and Leadership, and all of those dinky Horsemen turn into major Dragoons that can hold their own even against Phalanx behind City Walls. Focus on keeping a military technology advantage (obviously, focus next on getting Tactics for the powerful Cavalry) and your technologically advanced troops should be able to easily cut through your enemies even if outnumbered.
*Once you have Mapmaking, in cities that have extra resources (i.e., Bison or Whale resource squares), build a Trireme.
**Why the pathetic Horsemen? Why avoid Chivalry for a long while? Because Horsemen are cheap, but once you get Leonardo’s Workshop, Horsemen- with just a few tech advances- can turn into the formidable Knights, Dragoons, etc. at a very small initial cost. Once you discover Knights, though, you can’t build Horsemen.
Just two things I haven’t seen mentioned that surprise me.
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get to republic/democracy as quickly as possible. Sure this cuts down on your ability to fight, but either fight quickly in the beginning (before you reach reb/demo) or pay danegeld to keep enemies at bay. This strategy is even better in Civ I, where you can build the Pyramids and get access to Democracy really early;
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The most, most, most important Wonder in the game is … Sheakespeare’s Theater. I always build this Wonder in my most resourse-rich port facility. Then what I do is build mobs of my most powerful warship, transports, and sentry types, and send them off to do battle. To make it go quicker, I have inland cities building the land units, then transfer control/support to the Sheakespeare’s Theater city.
I use this combo to quickly take over other civilizations’ port cities. This means that, not only do you have great beachheads for later conquest, but they can’t come after your home turf.
My games usually go - quick peaceful expansion/exploration; turf out a few military units to wipe out/contain enemies on my home turf; go to democracy; another wave of peaceful expansion to fill in the rest of my home island/continent (also building up money/tech advances); get Shakespeare’s Theater and rule the waves; take over enemy port cities; expand inland and take over the rest of the enemies’ cities (by this time, you have enough Wonders/psych to allow all of your cities to build military units).
Sua
P.S. I’ve never beaten deity, but, assuming you can eliminate/contain enemies on your home island/continent early in the game, you can simply romp on emperor in Civ II.
It’s more tactics than strategy, but if, for example, I’m building two Wonders, I usually have three cities building them. That way, when I get a tech advance allowing me to build another Wonder I want, I just switch over. Always have at least one extra Wonder building city.
Especially on Civ II, I don’t consider this cheating. In Civ II, they added resource penalties for switching construction, but they didn’t (deliberately is my guess) penalize switching between Wonders.
Sua