BluegrassGeek
Warlord
How do you guys manage the happiness cap to abuse it so much?
Yeah, you went wide too fast. Happiness is harder to come by now, especially in the early game. You need to start tall, and try not to expand until you've got excess Happiness. Use as many caravans as you can for income, work luxuries ASAP (just don't neglect food), and pick Religion tenets/Social policies that boost Happiness when available. Try to match those up with the luxuries you're already working.
And try to play nice with your neighbors, at least in the beginning. Wars really sap Happiness, even without puppeting/annexing cities. If you do have to go to war, raze their cities for now. Which is actually not so bad, when you consider that it's likely to become an archaeology site later.