okay so I just played my first Emporer level game of civ V, I thought for sure I would be decimated, as I am really only a prince/ maybe king level player. However I just made a few ships of the line and no one dared to attack me, so I concentrated solely on happiness and culture starting at around 1500ad or so. Another thing, the 2nd place civ was still using long swordsman after 2000AD...what's up with that lol.