Some more gameplay questions

[sjudubbel]

Hi!

I am still by far no veteran at CIV IV, but am starting to do pretty well now. I beat the AI on monarch difficulty.
Would that be above average?
I still have some pretty basic gameplay questions. Would be great to get some good answers from you guys.

The tactic I find most useful is teaming up with a nearby AI against another nearby AI civ. Bribe the first AI to attack the other one and then attack its weakened defence after some turns. This sometimes seems almost a bit too easy, since it gives me an almost certain victory over that AI civ when it is fighting a two front war.
Common strategy, or?

* Do barbarians spawn from shrouded map areas which have been explored but are not visible at the moment, or do they only spawn from actual unexplored territory?

* If you are at war with a civ and you are winning, the other civ offers you a cease fire and gives you a tech as a bribe. If you would take the bribe and then attack the AI directly again after the 10 turns of cease fire has expired, would that harm your reputation in any way? Or if you are at peace, first make a demand, take the payment from the ai but then attack him immideately anyway.
I seems a bit immoral, but I can't really see it hurts your popularity rating with the other civs or anything else?

* Where can I read more about city trade routes? (the automatic ones that give you gold)

[joncnunn]

I think you'll need to beat the AI at Empror to be above average @ Apolyton; at least as of the last time such a poll was taken here.

The main limitation on that is finding the stooge AI to be the first to declare war so I haven't used that directly. Now I have used a close varient where my neighbor's neghbor AI all on it's own declared war on my neighbor and built up some troops then to be happy to volunter to join that fight against my neighbor when asked. Definately much easier than attacking all on my own.

Barbs can appear on any tile outside of LOS of all players at the moment.

If they give in to the demand you can't declare war for ten turns. Yes after the 10 turns expires you can declare war on him with no additional penalty. The usual "You declared war on us!" and "You declared war on our friend" penalties will still apply.

You can't control the trade routes other than ensuring all your cities have trade connection to your capital and discovering the techs that open up sea routes.