Trying to be able to reliably beat Hard AI, a couple questions.

1. What do I do when there's almost no hunt near my TC or when I quickly run out of hunt?
2. What do you do when the map is out of gold mines?
3. How can I hold off frequent attacks and still have a troop surplus?
4. How can you control where the AI attacks first?
5. What Civ is the best for turtling until Heroic?
6. How many villagers on food/gold/wood should I have before I go Classical?

Any advice would be awesome! I played AoM as a kid and have gotten back into it recently but can't seem to reliably beat the Hard AI like I used to.