12 Tips for moving your way up the rankings:
1. Fight aggressively with inactive players for points, avoiding active players because of bad trade repercussions.
2. Fight aggressively with the computer on the continent for points, expansions etc.
3. About TRADE:
a. Keep trade and chatting open with the active neighbors, regarding future resources. These relationships will help ensure you don't run out later on and save you a ton of space on building extra goods manufacturers.
b. Try to focus on trading for what you do not have, saving yourself putting up buildings, and then using buildings dedicated to the goods you have on the map to build a trade surplus for the neighbors.
c. Take a look at the neighbors production facilities, and try to put up attractive offers on the market as early as you can.
d. Never attack your trading partners, as this can cause unneeded tensions.
e. Plan ahead with Excel or some form of table the number of hours to the next items you will be researching. Calculate that you will need at least 4 hours per unit if no one is trading, and build accordingly when needed.
f. Do not expect that all of your needs will be met by trade. Be ready to build your own facilities. Give yourself enough time to decide whether you need to just make it yourself or depend on others.
g. Communicate with the others as much as you can about what you can expect to produce, and offer, and when, and what people would be interested in. This helps a lot.
i. Encourage others in your neighborhood not to give up.
j. Be willing to part with a good amount of your goods when you offer them for trade for others. This makes the chances of them being taken much more probable. I have seen all offers disappear when using this method.
4. Use a timer program/online kitchen timer to alert yourself every 15 minutes from all houses and supply centers. Refresh map when reach the 15 minutes mark. This can be deceptive, since sometimes the time stops counting if you switch tabs.
5. Also, constantly check for more efficient upgrades to buildings, and try to get the ones with the most production of the unit per square.
6. Save up for expensive upgrades by spending the time collecting resources
7. Always have the people enthusiastic. A few hedges or obelisks can increase production from between 30 and 50 coins per 15 minutes, easy.
8. Also, use some kind of a city planner at some point to trim out excess roads, and allow for optimal expansion.
9. Use excel or some kind of table to plan your resource harvesting/ trading, to streamline your events.
10. Never let your forge points go over 10.
11. Keep up a defense army if you keep getting sabotaged.
12. Always be reading forums and be on the lookout for information which could be helpful.
Most of all, Have fun!