My initial goal was to go for a Science victory, but my rival civs didn't try too hard to keep their CS alliances. Managed to win, even though both Hanoi and Ife being conquered.
Despite a rough start where I didn't get religion, or even a single Wonder until Forbidden Palace, I managed to maintain a good relationship with City-States, no doubt that's what saved me in every possible way, even in fighting off Ashurbanipal's army.
I had half of the CSes, as well as all my cities, demanding Salt, a luxury that didn't appear anywhere until near the end of the game, when Russia settled there. So, no WLTKD at all during the vast majority of the game.
Hiwatha stealing my coast was like a knife. No ideal spot for the 4th city, no ships, and two of my cities now needed to share space. But it managed to ensure our friendship (a first, for me).
As you can see, Hiwatha and Catherine were top dogs (and making 500+ gold per turn, both of them!), but somehow, they were my friends and didn't use their wealth to take away my CS allies (well, Russia made a half-hearted attempt, but not for long).
After I got Freedom (literally one turn after Brazil got it first
), I managed to make it the World Ideology before half my opponents had picked theirs. This lead to being friends with Russia (even as they and Assyria were exterminating Mongolia) shortly after I opened Rationalism.
My general culture output was somewhat low. My order was Full Tradition, Patronage&Rationalism policies (with a slight detour to Commerce opener around Industrialism), then Freedom tenets until Space Procurements, then go for Mercantilism.
I don't really regret getting those Patronage policies, even for a Science victory. I also felt like those two Rationalism policies were all I needed for a smooth SV game. I do think maybe I could've taken a Liberty opener and built the Pyramids (or take Citizenship) for the sake of better Worker speed. That could've sped things up a bit.
I still feel like I made so many mistakes (shoulda gotten a religion, shoulda built Settlers earlier, shoulda gotten at least one early-era Wonder, shoulda gone for Theology sooner, etc.), but the important thing is that I pay attention to these issues in future games.