Emperor games are fairly easy on anything slower than normal speed if you know somewhat what you are doing. Basically on slow speeds, just build huge stacks of anything and go crush your neighbor. Maybe it only took me a month to get good because ive played every other civ (1,2,3,etc). Take, for instance, sistuil annihilation using ragnar right now. The game is pretty much wrapped up and he started not anywhere near another civ. If you are playing islands, maybe tough, but any map with a neighbor close by is pretty easy to own on those slower speeds.