America - Very good at expanding quickly and keeping up with other nations, because large standing army gives resources over time. Having an instantly built wonder is incredibly useful and versatile. Having trouble building units or buildings that require wood? Get Temple of Tikal. Attrition damage causing headaches? Statue of Liberty. They are a very flexible nation, good at offense (standing army), defense (unique units auto entrench), and going through the library (free scholar in university).

Powers:
First Wonder is built instantly, if no other nation is also building it. This doesn't work with Information Age wonders (Space Program and Super Collider). Building the wonder still requires the resources to be paid.
Governments are researched for free at the Senate.
Receive one free Scholar with each new University.
All aircraft and carriers are 20% cheaper.
Receive 2 free Bombers at each Airbase from Modern Age on.
25% cheaper military ground units upgrades.
Receive +2 Food, Timber, Metal, and Wealth for every non-Scout Barracks unit, except when garrisoned. Metal is not gathered before Classical Age is researched (Thank you for the update Moyang).

Unique Units:
The American Marine is able to entrench (get a defensive bonus) after being idle for 5 seconds. Also its transports over water are faster and tougher.

Wonders:
I won't mention wonders unless they fit into a broad strategy. Wonders are always good, but sometimes they might be ill-timed or not synergize well with your play.

Rare Resources:
I won't mention rare resources unless they fit into a broad strategy. You should always lock them down if they are in your territory, but I am talking about instances where they are so important that you ought to actually fight over them if that is not the case. So things like sugar or silk are things that are always good, but things like Amber with Nubians or Copper for the Turks are more specific examples where there is a lot of strategic synergy.

In general the Ancient Age is over quickly. Please often rush to the classical to have more efficent economies and to start collecting metal and knowledge.

I often start by investing in the science tech in the library allowing all the other techs to be cheaper.
For America you want to make sure that by the time you finish this Age you have built.
- Another city (req. Civics)
- A barracks (req. Military)
- A market (req. Commerce)
- A temple (req. Science)

Of course you want to scout to get ruins, make a habit of holding shift and making way points. Its is far more efficient than letting them auto-explore in circles.

Now as you build up to the 250 Food you need to advance to the Classical Age try and build a few units from your Barracks. They add +2 to all resources but knowledge, and metal until you advance. Do this to also help get nearby ruins and protect against possible early game rushes.

Ok so now the fun begins. You can start to build universities, granaries and the like. You want to try and also have a third city up early in the age to have more trade caravans which will translate well into more knowledge. Make sure that your second or third city has a solid supply of metal and wood to work from.

At this point with the 3 free scholars and the extra gold coming in, you ought to jump ahead in knowledge. For America you ought to upgrade your military tech last as you ought to go Civic [tax gold and cities] - Science - Commerce. At that point you really ought to focus on getting very close to maxing out your population with Barracks units.

Ten units is +30 to all resources, getting 30 is +90, so you are killing two birds with one stone by having a strong national defense and keeping your economy strong. This forces you to build an army early while often humans are ill inclined to start building when they know there is a threat or when THEY themselves are going to attack.

In fact this is often a very good time to attack, to weaken your enemy not to kill. Unless your enemy literally has no defenses you aren't going to win now. If you can raid a town kill 5-10 citizens, raze a farm or two, or at the very least keep them the workers from working great! You are setting them back, and this early in the game that is a huge deal. They will have to spend hundreds of food and wood to get back up to speed while you kept chugging and even plundered some for yourself.

Try and avoid capturing a city though unless you can afford to hold it. It will work against your cap and you will have to spend some resources (that at this point should be hitting the commerce cap anyways) to keep it from being weak. If you raze all the buildings of a city but refrain on capturing it, it will hurt them more than if you capture it. They can't build a new one behind their lines as their civic tech is still used up in that city. This will force them to have to try and fight you, meaning they will have to build an army that will be one city down economically, to break through your lines. If they fail they are going to be that much more in the hole, if they succeed they have to build everything back from scratch.

Now you will also get access to the despot / senator from your government building. It really comes down to your play style and situation. If you are sure of your strong army, do despot. If you can only do hit-and-run raids on farms and citizens go with the senator for overall economic growth. Wars are often won in the forges.

Age Recap:
2-3 Cities with caravans and universities.
Standing Army for resources and raiding.
At least one incursion during this age to test them and force them into a corner, or at the very least weaken them.

At this point we are going to assume that you are still pretty neutral. I want to avoid predicting victory at any point in this guide, and show you how to put yourself in a position to win in any Age.

This does assume that the list of the Classical Age recap is fulfilled.

So you have a standing army, or assuming that your push to raid didn't go so well the seeds of an army. Now you want to start expanding while preventing the enemy from doing so. Try and make hard frontier cities and protect them with your army while doing so. If your enemy notices their border getting pushed in they might want to go grab a free city, so having that army there is important. You want to make sure that you are keeping your gold up, so make sure that the new city has temple and market. The temple helps to push the borders, give tax on the land, and gives extra hit-points for buildings in the city. Now depending on how good your army is against the enemy, try and just skim the outside of their borders. See if you can lure them back to your city where you will have attrition (remember to upgrade that) and a possible frontier city fortress. In general I separate my cavalry in a different control group, but with America being so barracks heavy for the free resources, don't forget about them.

Wonders:
Terra Cotta Army [300 Food & 300 Wealth] - Beauty is in the eye of the beholder but here is a wonder you ought to have if America. Not only are they giving you free units, but those free units help to keep your economy going. Don't make the mistake of letting this build your entire army, you should already have one, but this allows you to have a very strong army or a secondary army for defense if your opponent is raiding you often. Now the gold is going to set you back a bit if you decide to go this route. Make a point to have an army of barracks units to help your wealth. While the enemy often just has taxes and caravans, you have this ability to supplement your wealth income.

At this point in the game it is often advisable to turtle a bit. Have strong infrastructure and a strong army. You should be hitting your commerce caps across the board and have at least one wonder (doesn't have to be Terra Cotta Army if you don't want to). Make sure to probe the enemy to see the strength of their army & do damage to them. While they have to spend money on an army rather than investing in growing their food or wood, you get to have it both ways.

Age Recap:
Should have 3-4 cities.
Spend this time to fully develop them and lock down your infrastructure.
At least one wonder
At least one probe / raid to pressure enemy

At this point we are going to assume that you are still pretty neutral. I want to avoid predicting victory at any point in this guide, and show you how to put yourself in a position to win in any Age.

This does assume that the list of the Medieval Age recap is fulfilled.

It is at this point that you ought to really decide what kind of game is going to be played from here on out. If your raids and probes have helped to a very strong lead, build on that, but if you feel that the game will become protracted you have some other options. Wonders versus Invading versus Bee-lining for the Enlightenment Age where you can really kick butt.

And again so much of this requires you to play to the context of the game you are in. If metal is hard to come by, bank for Angor Wat in the Enlightenment Age, if wood shortages keep messing up your flow Temple of Tikal is what you need. But all told you want to establish how you will play for the rest of the game. Rushing for those Marines and slowly killing your enemy or turtling up with lots of defenses and wonders, and take advantage of American airpower later in the game allowing you to sweep cities and enemies aside.

If you are going to win with military soon, beeline for the Enlightenment Age. Make sure to max out your Army as their cost will go up after you upgrade them. Make sure to have a health amount of Marines, Fusilers, Cannons, Cavalry, and Supply Wagons. What makes the American Army that much more dangerous in siege is that if you have your cannons in range and leveling a city, have your Marines hold their ground. They will auto entrench and pose a very difficult to displace force to protect the cannons as they engage. Be patient and the cities will fall like dominoes. Having either Angor Wat or Temple of Tikal will decrease the costs of your Marines, although Angor Wat is a much more aggressive wonder as the metal and cost reduction are helpful across the board.

Don't Want to get your hands dirty with cannons and muskets? Then hunker down and built yourself up for the next age.

Age Recap:
Make sure that your army is fleshed out and at full at all times. Having even 75 barrack units on the field will net you +150 to all resources, nothing to scoff at.
Try and go for either wonder (both if possible).
Defenses (and especially outlook towers that become air defenses) are important to get now as you are going through the motions

At this point we are going to assume that you are still pretty neutral. I want to avoid predicting victory at any point in this guide, and show you how to put yourself in a position to win in any Age.

This does assume that the list of the previous Age recap is fulfilled.

At this point in the game the objectives are clear, you are going to have to bury your enemies with good ol' fashion American Air Power. If you have been good about being aggressive and stunting the growth of your enemies you should have a wide and depth empire that is not lacking in any resources (anytime you are bumping up against the commerce cap its a good thing).

Just like in the real world you need to start locking down reliable oil, as you won't get it from your foot troops. So of course lock down the oil wells and build the refineries because you will need them for the fighters and bombers.

You want to take a city at lightning speed?
- Time the speed of the bombers as they leave their base with your ground force (you get a free bomber when you build an airfield, try and leverage it early)
- Your ground force should always have at least one scout / commando to jam anti-air, see through decoys, and kill spies.
- With a very strong line of infantry hold the line with your Marines as your artillery starts to make Swiss cheese of anything that it wants. At the same time the bombers come pretty much leveling the city / buildings instantly, allowing you to capture.
- If the enemy army is in the city they will be hit with a lot of splash damage and will be facing Marines who are entrenched.

The real counter to this is Fighters and mobile anti-air. It would be smart to bring your own to tie them up as they are laid waste.

All the wonders of this age work really well with this setup, except for maybe the supercollider since you are about winning with bullets.

Getting aluminum is also key as it will make your air force unrivaled, fight for that stuff if you find it.

Now at this point in the game we can also assume as you have been toying with your enemy that they have a reasonable defense. Rather than headbutt it full force, play the long game. Send an army in one direction to raze smaller buildings or outposts, avoiding towers and forts, while sending your bombers elsewhere to demolish buildings and oil wells. it won't win the war, but it will frustrate your enemy when they have to work so hard to keep up economically. Eventually you will simply out run them. But splitting your forces when defenses are hard is a good way for the enemy to spend more resources (that they will have less of) to try and handle your advances.

This was my first guide for a specific nation, so I figured to go with something that is a powerhouse, do-it-all, and flexible. It was a lot easier to start than to finish and avoid being repetitive and saying things that are obvious and don't need much explanation. I tried to walk the line between helping those who are new and veterans alike. I will gladly take comments and criticism, and will also be happy to source you personally if you add something meaningful. I want to make more guides in the future for nations that are quirky or require some finesse. Nations such as Bantu for example are straightforward and there isn't much to explain on their behalf. Nations like the Iroquois, Lakota, and other nations will get my attention first as I hope to explain them and offer inside to a specific play style that I find works well.