I often build up a fortification at the edges of my area, then as soon as I hit classical I tower up, and while towering up I build armory and attempt to hit heroic then mythic ASAP for the Mythic aged god power, and ranged siege.
Advantages of this method is that if someone else uses a mythic god power on you, such as earthquake or whatever, it's generally weakened in severity because the towers can take a lot of the damage (this is vastly helped with building upgrades at the TC)
Also, as soon as you get a decent ranged siege, you tend to be able to dominate, especially with the towers to protect them.
This is easiest with Hades, because hades gets the sentinels at the start, + stronger towers, + ranged siege at heroic.
Norse also fairs well, with Ballista being very strong lategame.
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