Im not an expert but I think that inhibiting the AI's growth is unversally a good idea. I try to make as many cities as I can in the early going, particularly in a manner that will "section off" other parts of land for later expansion, keeping them from accessing it since My culture bubble blocks them out.
also I somewhat neglect research early on and just aim for expansion - reseach comes easily later when you have more cities, but expanding is much harder.
I also abuse slavery civic to output UUs and workers/ settlers asap.
This is only for Warlord Large map on normal setting; from what I read this type of tactic will get you eaten alive on higher difficulties