BTS deity is a lot more forgiving than warlords, honestly, and aggressive AI even easier (think, think).
My way of playing is similar, except I'm slower, and I'm more appreciative of traits other than financial and philosophical. I tried your strategy Snaaty, and it seems to work very well... if you do manage to get maceman in time. That usually doesn't happen to me though.
Got 2 questions:
1) You mentioned expanding quickly before cottaging your lands. However, I find myself getting dogpiled by multiple AIs during my pacifism years, usually between 300AD and getting liberalism at around 500AD (you can get it 375AD, good for you, I can't beat 450AD-ish). The real trouble is, under pacifism, I cannot both keep up my science slider and keep an army large enough to prevent an outright dogpile, the kind where 3 civs suddenly declare war on you. Remember you told us to stay away from machinery during this time, and you obviously did not have horseback riding either, so... am I supposed to try to hold off using axeman?! You didn't even have construction for catapults that could soften their invasion stacks.
2) I understand the obvious need to avoid any techs that are not absolutely necessary, but I got two that I've been wondering about: monarchy and calendar. How did you reach such high hapiness levels with neither the pyramids, hereditiary rule or calendar resources?