Just got my Time game in.
The good:
Found El Dorado first! I had luckily researched Archery first, so I immediately bought Archers to take down India.
Only 4 City States and 2 of them were maritime (for more food)
The bad:
I missed out on a bunch of I love the King Days because I forgot to connect the Pearls for a long time on a tiny one square ocean tile after getting all my cities up.
I only had a total of 33 cities because of awkward city state and AI civ capital placement. From previous Tiny Map time games, I know 36 is the max number of cities you can have.
Growth vs Happiness:
It being Emperor level, for early-mid game happiness issues especially, I took Goddess of Love (+1 happiness for 6+ population cities) as my pantheon instead of a food pantheon..
For my religious beliefs, I went Religious Center (+2 happiness if having temple and 5+ followers) and The food one (+1 food for each shrine and temple).
I had no sustained periods of unhappiness other than some short spurts in the early conquest phase.
Having obtained every happiness social policy and having built every happiness wonder and building, I ended the game with 29 happiness.
If I had managed my I love the King days better and had micromanaged city hexes a bit more, I could have grown part or most of that 29 happiness as population, so i think my religious choices struck the balance pretty well.
Social Policy order:
Honor start (very helpful for early culture ramp during conquest phase on Quick)
Liberty to the free settler and to the policy making each new city reduce the culture penalty.
Tradition, with the Liberty closer sprinkled in.
Patronage opener (to build Forbidden Palace)
Honor down to Garrison policy (+1 happiness and +2 culture per garrisoned city)
Freedom Ideology - Civil Society, Capitalism (+1 happiness for banks, stock exchanges), Universal Suffrage
Openers for the other policy trees, Aesthetics-Cultural Centers (to build culture buildings faster)
[World's Fair]
Finish Commerce (for the happiness belief at the end.)
Piety down to reformation beliefs (Choose For the Glory of God to generate more Great Writers during the Fair)
Avant Garde and the other Freedom happiness tenets
Exploration happiness policy for lighthouses/harbors/seaports
[End World's Fair]
Finish Rationalism, Aesthetics down to Flourishing of the Arts, a couple random Exploration policies at the end.
Other choices:
1) Build army to take down two of the other AI civs. (El Dorado sped this a lot!)
2) Build Great Library while Liberty is moving toward reducing culture penalty when founding new cities
3) Liberty free settler and an expansion cities to key points (El Dorado, Mt Kailash)
4) Once India and Morocco are taken down, surround Venice with expansion cities (as quickly as happiness will allow)
5) Build up these cities against the happiness cap until the World's Fair
6) At the start of the fair, build expansion cities next to landmarks so their culture helps the Fair effort
7) Establish all other cities at the end of the Fair
I used Austria's power to buy all 4 city states at some point. The two non-maritime ones, as soon as happiness would allow. I saved the two maritime ones until a bit after the Fair to help grow all my new cities.
I did not press Science much at all after getting the Great Library built, other than growing as much as happiness would allow. Conquest, happiness, food were always greater priorities than science until the mid-late game. I could not justify the Rationalism tree when I desperately needed happiness policies elsewhere.
I made some mistakes, but I would probably follow a similar template if I played it again. The happiness seemed to balance out with growth at the end. On Emperor, it is harder to incrementally build expansion cities all throughout the game. I had 10 or 11 going into the World's fair and that was plenty to deal with happiness-wise.
On Emperor, I also think it best to get conquest done early, so the AI civs are not sniping wonders and building the Great Wall etc.
I do not regret choosing Goddess of Love for the Pantheon.
@Cromagnus always swore by it in higher level Time Games, as it gives Universal (not local) happiness and that comes in really handy. It helped me more easily manage to get 8 expansion cities and hold my two conquered capitals while still growing population.
I enjoy Time games [well at least when the map is not too big
] so thanks to @aafritz for making such a good one!
