I wanted to share something I've discovered recently that I've been having lots of fun with and I would love to hear if some you do something similar in your games 
After completing a few UHV's which were enjoyable but ultimately quite stressful due to keeping track of so many things and laying out my strategy methodically from the start, I started playing somewhat differently recently.
I set up my own way of playing a civilization based on how I feel I would enjoy playing them, their civics, their UHV goals and their general situation. The key is to enjoy the journey, rather than the destination. For that, each civilization has what I call 'Unique historical directives' that I then play out.
The unique historical directives are for my personal taste and come from what simply feels right when playing a civilization. To illustrate I'll just quickly describe the game I had with the Vikings last night which was great fun.
- At the start I worldbuildered their starting civics, changing Vassalage to Authority (can't be done in game). The rest of the civics I felt were great for how I saw the Vikings so I kept them.
- I never got Theology because it didn't seem appropriate for the animist Vikings to entertain such things
- The description at the beginning of the game describes how there is a scarcity of food which made great sense to me so I didn't build any harbors in any of my cities. It doesn't feel right to have a population of a million people in Roskilde (Kobenhavn) in the medieval era for example.
- I only researched Civil Service for Huscarls, all other technologies I bought from civilizations I didn't have any immediate plan of raiding such as Poland and Byzantium. Most of the time I was simply running 100% wealth, switching to culture when I needed to expand my lands (to gain access to the whales in Iceland or to expand the culture of my city in Estonia). It seemed right that Vikings weren't really scientific oriented people.
- I built Aastru Hof in every Viking city because that seemed thematically appropriate. Didn't build it in the conquered cities of Cork, London, Edinburgh and Bordeaux.
- I build the Trading post in every city because Vikings as good traders seemed right and somewhat historically appropriate
- I traded local resources like Furs and Whales for exotic goodies like Wine and Dyes from Byzantium
- I didn't get any great people during the course of the game
- Even when I could build Galeassess I stuck to Longships which made sinking French Galeassess all that more satisfying
- Happiness was a massive issue due to not having vassalage, not building Arenas or Markets (it was one of the negative modifiered that made me collapse)
- I never sailed past Santiago because the Spanish never opened borders and I didn't have the necessary resources to fight their ships on top of everything else I was doing
- All cities needed to have at least one food resource or I wouldn't settle them (a rule in all my RP games basically)
- I discovered America but didn't settle any cities there as there were no good spots nearby (Newfoundland had food but no production, Montreal had Furs but no food, I didn't sail further south)
- I collapsed in 1285AD due to overextension, religious disunity and unhappiness after conquering and sacking Bordeaux, Cork, Edinburgh, London and controlling all of Scandinavia plus the Baltics and Iceland.
That felt like a very fitting end for the great raiding nation of the Vikings
After completing a few UHV's which were enjoyable but ultimately quite stressful due to keeping track of so many things and laying out my strategy methodically from the start, I started playing somewhat differently recently.
I set up my own way of playing a civilization based on how I feel I would enjoy playing them, their civics, their UHV goals and their general situation. The key is to enjoy the journey, rather than the destination. For that, each civilization has what I call 'Unique historical directives' that I then play out.
The unique historical directives are for my personal taste and come from what simply feels right when playing a civilization. To illustrate I'll just quickly describe the game I had with the Vikings last night which was great fun.
- At the start I worldbuildered their starting civics, changing Vassalage to Authority (can't be done in game). The rest of the civics I felt were great for how I saw the Vikings so I kept them.
- I never got Theology because it didn't seem appropriate for the animist Vikings to entertain such things
- The description at the beginning of the game describes how there is a scarcity of food which made great sense to me so I didn't build any harbors in any of my cities. It doesn't feel right to have a population of a million people in Roskilde (Kobenhavn) in the medieval era for example.
- I only researched Civil Service for Huscarls, all other technologies I bought from civilizations I didn't have any immediate plan of raiding such as Poland and Byzantium. Most of the time I was simply running 100% wealth, switching to culture when I needed to expand my lands (to gain access to the whales in Iceland or to expand the culture of my city in Estonia). It seemed right that Vikings weren't really scientific oriented people.
- I built Aastru Hof in every Viking city because that seemed thematically appropriate. Didn't build it in the conquered cities of Cork, London, Edinburgh and Bordeaux.
- I build the Trading post in every city because Vikings as good traders seemed right and somewhat historically appropriate
- I traded local resources like Furs and Whales for exotic goodies like Wine and Dyes from Byzantium
- I didn't get any great people during the course of the game
- Even when I could build Galeassess I stuck to Longships which made sinking French Galeassess all that more satisfying
- Happiness was a massive issue due to not having vassalage, not building Arenas or Markets (it was one of the negative modifiered that made me collapse)
- I never sailed past Santiago because the Spanish never opened borders and I didn't have the necessary resources to fight their ships on top of everything else I was doing
- All cities needed to have at least one food resource or I wouldn't settle them (a rule in all my RP games basically)
- I discovered America but didn't settle any cities there as there were no good spots nearby (Newfoundland had food but no production, Montreal had Furs but no food, I didn't sail further south)
- I collapsed in 1285AD due to overextension, religious disunity and unhappiness after conquering and sacking Bordeaux, Cork, Edinburgh, London and controlling all of Scandinavia plus the Baltics and Iceland.
That felt like a very fitting end for the great raiding nation of the Vikings
