Early game it's close to and inspired by the strats posted by
@knighterrant81 and
@Jerovich in the Early game guide thread. Always culture first at least until I've secured the Enlightenment civic.
First city built a scout, settler, monument but switched to builder then settler upon scouting a good Pyramids spot. Then finished Monument and made Builder x2 and Granary in some order. The capital had no great early improvements. Other times with e.g. a stone, a horse and a wheat I'd definitely make an early builder for the cap so two early builders (one went to city #3 to chop Pyramids).
After that Government Plaza, Ancestral Hall, Settler x4 (mainly chopped). Made two units in there somewhere as well. At least make one slinger for the Archery boost. After that I built Acropolis, Amphitheatre, Campus, Library, University. I made sure to have the Campus up in time for the Recorded History boost. Think I bought an Art Museum in the capital, which was stupid. It's much better to buy buildings in the bad cities, and buying two amphitheatres trumps one museum I think.
Second city built a Monument, Campus (for the State Workforce boost), Oracle (chopped). Followed by Acropolis, Builder x2, then 3 Heavy Chariots, Amphitheatre and Library. I also bought a builder in this city right after settling it.
Third city built Pyramids (chopped with builder made in capital). Then Monument, Granary, Acropolis, 3 Heavy Chariots, Amphitheatre, Campus.
Maybe the order is a bit off in those queues, don't recall exactly. Roughly correct.
Fourth city was Entertainment Complex, Arena, Colosseum, Monument, Granary, Acropolis, Amphitheatre. Finished Colosseum t86-88.
Pyramids completed t4x, Oracle t5x and Colosseum late in the 80's. All those timings are slow if the AI really wants a wonder. I've seen Pyramids go t3x a couple of times - which is too early to compete for it. With good scouting, you can look around the AI land to see if they're making your wonder so you don't waste hammers if they are (most relevant for the Colosseum as it require 6-7 chops).
I went for Magnus x2 first, then Pingala to Grants. It worked out quite well timing-wise. Magnus first assigned to Pyramids city to chop it out. Then re-assigned to Oracle city and chop that out. Then re-assign to capital just in time for chopping out Settlers. Pingala was then in my Oracle city all game, and I made plenty of farms for that city to grow to 10 asap. I was very liberal with making builders in this game, aimed at never working an unimproved tile. Later I promoted Liang to the bottom, and she jumped around making city parks for amenities (extra +5% yield if the city is ecstatic vs happy).
All my other expansions first builds were Acropolis then Monument or the other way around. After that it varied quite a bit, the ones with mountains made campuses. The ones on the coast with 0 adjacency made some other stuff. I even made a Water Park later on, which was wasteful.
The second age I got a golden age and had Goddess of the Harvest, which is key to be fast, so bought the remaining settlers with faith. At that point I had 7 cities and they were all settled to block the AI as well as possible, so the remaining spots were safeish. I did lose a couple of spots still though, had 15 city center pins planned. Some of the cities sucked balls, but still held their ground in the end I think. If you settle before t100, even the no fresh-water, no aqueduct city is worth it (Pharsalos).
Technology doesn't feel that important to me early in the game. I tend to juggle around in the tree to make sure I get as many eurekas as possible. I did beeline and hard-tech Masonry when I found a Pyramids location. After that towards Writing and Bronze Working, but the AI killed all the barbs so struggled to get the boost. Didn't clear a camp until t100. Lux tech like Irrigation when needed. Aimed for Apprenticeship asap, then Stirrups then Education. Tried to hold off on Edu until I got a great scientist, but lost some turns making crap in two cities. Don't think it was worth it.
Civics I went roughly for Early Empire -> Political Philosophy -> Drama -> Feudalism -> Exploration -> Enlightenment -> Opera and Ballet -> Suffrage -> Globalisation. I was suzerain of 9 or 10 city states I think when I got Globalisation, which is 45-50% extra science. You get an envoy when finishing an Acropolis, so maintaining good CS relations is easier with Pericles. I also went out of my way to solve their quests. I had double Acropolis bonus, double Campus bonus, Rationalism and the equivalent culture one running all game. Perhaps it might be better to go State workforce before Early empire, but this way it's easier to get the inspirations. I lost out on the +15% wonder production for the Pyramids, which could've made me lose it if someone else was in contention.
Rome was boxed in by me early, so some war was inevitable. Especially after he stole my planned fifth expansion which was an excellent location and kept sending settlers towards "my" turf, one of my scouts had to spend countless turns blocking one of them. I attacked him with Knights on t9x and took a couple of cities and got a nice peace deal. Wiped him out with Cuirrasiers when he DoW'ed later in the game. Some eurekas require a bit of combat, so even if you don't take a lot of cities a small war helps. Kill a unit with a Knight, Kill a unit with a Spearman, have 3 Armies etc.
I only really hard-built two settlers, they rest were chopped or bought (and came with free worker). The free worker always chopped in the new city to get the infrastructure up and running.
Gold is rarely a problem, I just sell all my resources. I even moved my initial settler for 3 turns so I could settle on a lux hill I had in vision. Sold it immediately for a crap price (like 90 gold), but that allowed me to purchase an early builder. There's a difference between the AI's: Mongolia in this game paid around 200 gold for 20 horse and 20 iron all game, while Poland and Canada paid good money for Diplomatic Favour. Make sure to see which AI gives the best deal, a lux can vary from 4-5 gpt to 13-15gpt. I also sell one of the works from the first Great Writer. At that point I rarely have an Amphitheatre, and just one spot in the Palace. That's around 22-23 gpt.
To get the science up there are no secrets I think. 10 pop with rationalism and +3 if possible, always work the specialist slots. I had two science CS as well, they help a lot. Without those, a couple of hundred beakers would be gone. But whether the output in the end is 800 or 1200 it's not what I think about. It's more important to have good numbers early and hit as many eurekas as possible. I made a bunch of Campus Research Grants too. All the small details add up, in a sense it's the essence of the game.
Pericles makes the early game easier. Extra policy means flexibility: If you want to buy tiles or make builders or chariots, there's room for the desired policies without losing out on something vital. You also get a pantheon without sacrificing production. +5% culture pr suzerain is great. And the Acropolis ensures a great jump in culture when the wave of expansion is out, it only cost about the same as a Monument at this stage of the game.
However, he is more map-dependant than Korea. Without any mountains or fissures, the campuses suck. You really really want +3 or more.
I took a lot of risk placing campuses beneath volcanoes this game for adjacency, forcing me to spend turns repairing later after the inevitable eruption. I also took a lot of risk going for three early wonders. Finally, I took risk bribing Rome to keep my puny army out scouting. There was a window early in the game where he could've set me back a lot with a Legion attack. There's also risk with getting the good pantheon. Without it, I would've aimed to chop out settlers in some of my newer cities, but that would've delayed everything.
You need room to expand to make it work, which isn't a given. It feels to me like I can always get my second city just in time before the AI gets his fourth. But if the AI settles the third city right on your doorstep, any fastish development requires war. With certain AI's, you also know you're gonna be DoW'ed all game if you don't wipe him out. Like Alexander or Chandragupta, awful neighbours. Maybe it's just the luck of the draw, but fractal maps seem easier to me than Pangea. Some of the starting spots on Pangea are incredibly cramped. Still, Rome, Canada and USA all had lousy land, so had I drawn one of those locations it would've been hard.
Playing this way will sometimes get you a cultural victory by accident though, which is a bit annoying. I deliberately delayed flight, but still ended up winning a CV not long after I got Robotics. I cba selling great works just to avoid winning. If the patch nerf culture victories I'd be happy.
Man that ended up too long. I'll have to work on being succinct.