I just won my first deity game, 1080AD Domination with China. None of my eight rivals had wc or masonry at the start and got the first tier techs with those. I researched just writing, philosophy, and literature to get to MA with a Monarchy slingshot trading philo for poly on the big picture. The 8 ai's fought with each other the whole time, making the first few conquests easy. I just missed capturing the ToA, which I never got, the Hittites beat me to the city by one turn, when Portugal was eliminated. I took out the Arabs my only neighbor to the north next, capturing HG and the GL. That took me to astronomy and gunpowder, more than I really needed though caravels were useful. Every war I signed most ai's into ma, but most went quickly. I thought I would have a good time finish, but the dom. limit was 1247 tiles.
England was last and they got nationalism just as I started war around 560AD with Riders and I lost alot of money trying to steal tech. My first MGL appeared in 600AD, but there were many after that. I had to research metallurgy and military tradition after a chemistry came in with a lone scientist to take them out. I saw a few rails, so I guess they got to steam, but no farther. Constant war really slowed the pace after the start and Riders did well even against muskets. I built a lot of temples and some libraries to cover more territory and I experienced few flips until the end. I tried to keep the English cities and one flipped with an army and 14 Riders waiting for upgrades. Riflemen were very difficult, even for 4-cav armies, so I'm glad I had the Hittites helping in that war. I still need to learn to be more careful with my elites, I lost too many taking chances. As a result my army never got bigger than 40-50 Riders/cav until the very end. I lost some armies taking chances as well when they were not fully healthy. I cash rushed settlers and culture as space appeared to get territory faster, keeping England alive with one city as I had an ma and MPP with the Hittites.
A very tough game at the start and the end. I tried many starts and failed trying to build settler factories first, but the ai was to quick to box me in. If I used the min. number of ai's I could have a better start, but they all got too big and wars did nothing to slow them down. Beijing in the end had only palace, the Pentagon, barracks and marketplace.