Gfresco

So, I'm an old Gal Civ player that bought the game on sale recently. I've been getting back into it, but years of playing shooters has dulled my tactical mindset. There are just a few aspects of the game that seem to be eluding me. So, here are my questions (for reference I usually play on a mid-to-larger sized map, I usually disable tech brokering, and I set my difficulty/the AI to gifted - speeds/rates are usually set to normal - I also usually am on a custom