Since my t80 update - I got 3 cities up, didn't settle 4th for quite a while (way S by deer for 3 sea tiles, iron, fur). I made so many mistakes this game it was crazy.
1.) 4th city - I was desperate to get some iron and be in reach of more hills for my super lack of production - but the ice meant I couldn't run cargo ships - ugh. It only got to pop 16.
2.) Went Freedom, as both Persia and Germany went Order first (Shaka and Poc Autocracy, rest Order). I didn't want 0 free tenets (was absolutely ready to take only 1), and Autocracy seemed worthless with zero military buildings and walls in only 2 cities.
3.) Not switching to Order after finishing SOL, or Free Foreign Legion tenet. I was a breath away from annihilation for like 80 turns. Even Darius dropped our constant DOF.
4.) Focusing on late-game food buildings when I should have been building TP and banking cash. I was racking up like 50-60 food/turn in cap - I have never built those buildings.
5.) Not enough early food to cap - I only had one cargo ship and way late one food caravan. No wonder my tech sucked. Plastics t210. So working mostly farms kept my production in the toilet. I didn't finish Natl Epic until t225, which is horrid, considering I'm counting on GP (East India much later, ugh)! At least I got Hydro Plants in 3 cities.
6.) Laughed to myself seeing 2 stranded barb workers on the island by Sydney, and didn't think til much later that by capturing I could gain 80 influence - derp, too late!
My initial plan was to go Tradition, then Patronage to Consulates (I did, and had to delay Rat open to do it), then run Freedom for 6 tenets to level3 Treaty Organization (+4 influence/turn with CS with trade route), and finish Rat and Patronage sometime. I figured this game would be easy! Ended up with full Rat, only 3 Order and 4-deep Patronage. By contrast, Persia and Austria had all of Patronage 80 turns earlier.
First WC I propose WF and Austria bans all CS routes, I assume to isolate Shaka. Derp. I wasn't able to lift the ban for a long time, and by then my routes still had like 40-50 turns left to go, with WL votes coming! So I was trying to decide when to switch to Order. I did one reload when something new happened - Germany asked me to denounce Poc (I have never seen that) and I refused, and next turn Germany denounced me! I knew what that meant, as Theo had already denounced me long before and things went bad after that. So I reloaded and denounced, and relations improved...
Sort of. Suddenly Shaka (Poc's buddy) starts to citadel bomb me. He stole my furs and 2 precious production tiles, and he had 2 more GG's ready to make a path to my cap - so I had to DOW him with a minimal force (5 minimally promoted Gats, 2 weak Infantry, 1 near-worthless Hakkapelitta, a Scout and a Caravel off somewhere). Luckily I had just ramped up production, so I built 3 BB's with double land promos, and blasted the crap out of his GWI. They can one-shot Cavalry easy. His 2 GG's were undefended, whew. I finished SOH just in time to get the 6 Free Foreign Legions, and in hindsight I should have ran them all up to Mt Kil for Alt Training. This would have given me time to upgrade them all to Infantry as well. So I lost quite a few troops battling for Ondini (which I sold to Persia for big bucks to fund my final CS buys, didn't sell any cities, just gpt and still had 2k left). I thought I would have to liberate Manilla for the DV (it was allied with Germany early in the game and Shaka took it). Took white peace with Shaka, and he was amazingly holding out better than expected against Persia and Germany for dozens of turns - but he is toast.
I faith GE'd SOL, hard-built SOH and Neuschwanstein (at a time I desperately needed troops) and missed CR by 2 turns. By the end game I burned a natural and faith GS to finally beat down Poc's relations with the NW CS's, knowing I was killing my science game. Nobody had built Hubble yet, even though almost everyone had Apollo.
As far as good things I did, I focused on cultural CS early, and with only 3 cities I made good early policy progress, it seemed. I bee-lined Globalization, and those 5 diplomat votes made all the difference. My late-game switch to Order gave me some breathing room, but just to be sure I kept my 4 closest neighbors at constant war. I handled Shaka very well, but it was expensive! One plan that would have worked without 3 move Impi's - I gave him open borders and a bribe vs Persia, and once half his troops were through my mtn pass, I tried to close it off with units, but he could move 2 hills, darn. This trick has worked in many games, w/o reinforcements he would have lost the front half for nothing.
All in all, an exasperating game. I hate being so weak with nasty neighbors. I wish they would code an Immortal-style open, and then make the AI handle it's cash better into the late game. Now THAT would be fun - smoother difficulty.