The problem with illiterate dom was that I lose steam around T150, as the window is nearing an end. In this case, I was on one of the tough ICS style opponent with GW, and it dragged on for more than 20 turns. Had I built a couple of universities/library earlier, I would tech to artillery and finished earlier, especially since the final civ was on a peninsula with very few attack-able positions. I needed much better troop management skill to manage it faster to avoid end of the window. Losing Impi weren't a problem, as they were very cheap to produce.