Advice for how to play wide

I am a lifetime tall player, it all I know and love, however I am looking to spice things up and get out of my comfort zone. I recently played a wide game as Rome on 6 difficulty, early game seemed ok and I think I had around 7 cities by industrialization. However I got left far behind in tech, shortly after finishing factories Alexander completed the manhattan project :(.

I am curious on strategies to play wide, on basically everything. Early game tech/build progressions, when and how many cities to found, religion, progression into mid and late game, what buildings to prioritize, how many cities to aim for, any tips or advice on how to play. Tall will always be my first love, but who’s to say it has to be my only!

Edit: as my first r/civ5 post I was not expecting to get that much of a response. Thank you to everyone for your tips and tricks, especially some longwinded replies, I am excited for my next game to try out everything Ive learned!