Despite the abundant early food and production, I didn't go for an early war. Closing off most of the continent was easy, but it took me a while before my economy could sustain the cities, largely because of happiness issues. I really should have gone for Monarchy ASAP once I realized there were no happiness resources to be had (except for the far away fur). And in hindsight I should have pillaged and razed my neighbors just to slow them down and make some easy cash.
I first warred against Hamurabi who was small and behind in tech. Pretty easy war, mostly Maces, Trebs and Cats against Longbows and Maces, later on I brought in a few knights as well. Lesson for the future: trebs are cheap and effective, let's do more of those!
I kept most cities, brought the good ones online quickly using the whip, popped a golden age for two GSs and a switch to CE with my cottages mostly online. Finally made contact overseas, self-teched and traded into a tech lead, finished quite a bit of infrastructure and switched to major military production. I opened war on Elizabeth with Infantry and Cannon, and though she put up a fight my stacks were great by this point and the Cannon very effective, so she went down quickly.
Then on to overseas war, where both continents each had a strong AI with a vassal. I sat down to get my economy up again with the new cities and tech transports and marines. Also, DIKES! Anyways, these were modern wars with railroads on their continents, so the first one went slowly since I had numbers on my side but they had a slight tech advantage, for instance jet fighters which really made bombing a problem and forces the use of artillery. The vassal broke free early and I made peace while I wiped out the stronger foe, and then went on to conquer the ex-vassal as well, but this was all after they were effectively already broken. My tanks (Modern Armor, no less!) eventually prevailed
Taking over the second (larger) continent was enough for the domination victory, once the conquered cities came out of revolt.
Obviously a faster take-over of the initial continent would have allowed a much sooner overseas invasion, which is much much easier before railroads come into play.
.
