snarzberry
Emperor
Well, if you've chosen a civ that's designed for early war then to get the most out of them you're going to want to attack someone, right? Religion, citystates, resource trades, social policies, careful choosing of which cities to attack and which to keep... there are many ways to maximize your happiness while going for domination victory. There are many ways to screw up too
Here is a screenshot from a game that shows a conquering spree in the early/mid game and you can see that happiness was kept under control. Some turns being moderately unhappy are probably inevitable but in this game (imm, pan, standard everything, mongols (easy pickings i know)) I don't think I ever spent time in -10 unhappy or worse. Even after taking the final capital, Stockholm, I've only slipped down to -6 and was in the green before that.
Here is a screenshot from a game that shows a conquering spree in the early/mid game and you can see that happiness was kept under control. Some turns being moderately unhappy are probably inevitable but in this game (imm, pan, standard everything, mongols (easy pickings i know)) I don't think I ever spent time in -10 unhappy or worse. Even after taking the final capital, Stockholm, I've only slipped down to -6 and was in the green before that.