Another Civ 4 loss

Well, I was right. I lost in Civ 4. AGAIN. The Zulu empire "pearl harboured" me and I had to start a new game. This time, I am playing the Roman empire, and my opponents are Greece, France, Egypt, Russia, England, Carthage, and Persia. So far, the year is 748 AD and I only have 4 cities, but I just discovered iron. I'm going to use it to get some powerful army units of praetorians developed, and hopefully take over France before 1000 AD. If not, I may lose again. I seem to be in a slump lately. Everytime I'm close to getting a winning strategy, it seems someone invades me. Hopefully this time I can do it to them before they do it to me.

I'm starting to research technologies that will lead me to Education, and then I can build universities in my cities. Then I plan to make a beeline for Chemistry, so I can develop grenadiers to replace the praetorians. After that (if I survive), I can make a beeline for Rifling and Industrialism, which will allow me to develop tanks, marines, and battleships. If I can beat the other countries to those by about 150 years, I should be in a good position to win the game. We'll see what happens. Go Leafs Go, and take the Blue Jays with you.