After attacking Alex his border city's defense went up from 20 to 56 & Athens' from 60 to 85 which was a bit of a problem itself but after taking the 1st one my happiness dropped to -5 to -10 which was a prologue to a disaster. GW didn't hamper me much after palnting 3 GGs but producing arties under severe unhappiness I had to take Athens mainly with Xbows. Athens fell T175 without single even moderately useful building and even the 3 wonders were useless - FP was hiding somewhere else and stonehenge in Mecca. One thing for sure after the capture - I needed a plan F as all prior to that were effing useless by now. Happiness dropped to -25 and rebels were quite succesfully pillaging my lands which didn't help with my hammerfree production.
Recalled Harun T185 to have something working for me and Sparta with FP which helped a bit. I didn't build PSchools as I earlier expected the to end around T200, likely before than later but now the timeline was delayed especially when I took a closer look at the map.
After killing Alex & taking Mecca Pacha had 3 cities between the capitals and Lisbon was the 4th city after that one of those being Austrian & and I wasn't suppose to use navy. On the other side Moson Kahni looked easy in comparison, only one Austrian city on the way while Vienna was a bit trickier though only one mandatory city in between.
Pachacuti was very pleased with me after liberating his border city and offered DoF on T186 - I'd have been pleased with OB. T190 Oxforded Radio since my sci & GS production was way crappier than usually and chose Order on next for immeadiate happiness boost - didn't get to positive but at least single digit negative.
Poca & white Maria DoWed me on T193 which didn't cause much problems apart from occasionally losing lux from Buenos Aires. T195 Mecca but Alex found a way to the skies as bit of surprise and I even lost an artie and it postponed his death until T202.
Troops on South started slowly marching towards Portugal through Incan land, slowly build 2nd army was heading towards Poca and the pioneer bunch of 4 GGs & several workers were bombing a pathway from Beijing to Salzburg - nice 3 wide lane enough for a road and a mandatory hopping city enabling GWBs to get to Salzburg & later Vienna. I also bribed Maria T to DoW the other one & Pacha.
T207 Honor finished and money troubles were over unlike happiness issues as Austria went Autocracy & others Freedom. T210 I had to DoW Maria T few turns in advance as her city expanded blocking my way to Portugal. Liberated Shanghai but after killing local Poca's troops Wu swarmed the area so I couldn't take Moson K until T224 and made a quick peace after that.
T213 Flight, started building GWBs & bought as much as I could as out of Rio they came with repair but the production halted for a moment as Pacha won some lottery & bought my oily CS.
After getting through Incan lands 3 logistics & range arties can take a city down quickly enough and as expected Maria's white power was rusting in the seas and not much of help in defending the cities. I also took an Austrian city near Cusco, GG bombed twice & built roads on every tile while hammering down Porto & Lisbon.
T231 Took Vienna surprisingly easy, DoWed Pacha but as I couldn't afford to upgrade my gatling it took two rounds to get Cusco so the game ended on T232.
On hindsight I should've taken anything but Alex after China I just didn't expect the massive happiness hit which halted everything for ~50 turns. After getting my happiness back life was simple again.
Teching was a pathetic mess and even created a GE for Eiffel as I couldn't afford hammers for it. Brandenburg was the only other later WW I got.
By the time I killed Alex he was still 5 techs ahead and in later turns Maria T had Plastics which I ignored.
With enough spare time I'd prolly replay this from Education onwards if it'd make any difference. Unlike in the Spain game I more pissed than curious about the activities of the rebels - I can't recall a game where I had more rebellious troublemakers without my blessing for their actions. The cities were slightly larger than on average so I really needed the help of CSs as willing trading partners are hard to come buy and I assume this would've been easier with Tradition but I just can't bother with it.
Full Liberty, left side of Honor, 2 in Rati as I didn't expect the need for filling Honor then all the happiness from Order and Honor filled. No Great Works apart from last turn Musician nor did I bother to check what I got from captured cities, at worst ideological pressure gave me -21 happiness and in general I paid very little attention to the others; only Alex's path of early glory was interesting.
(all artists were used to keep the carnival on forever)
I watched Acken's game, and he built the Oracle well into the 100's for a rationalism policy. In my game, the Oracle was gone by t82, so I got really mad... until I realized I was getting Education on t94. Huh? The world is super friendly and cuddly, so everyone is sending caravans to me. t94 Education, rush-bought 3 universities and slingshot into t102 Acoustics, used writer to open Rationalism. I would have purchased 4 universities right at once, but I had to buy some land around because, as you can see, our Liberty neighbors are trying hard to expand. Wu already has 9 cities and is becoming a nuisance. She also has an army. 
(holy moly, packing 182 science on t104)
I wanted to suggest India and Huns maps which are probably above in difficulty than the Brazil one.
