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I feel that doing so would seriously affect my enjoyment of the game, as I'm micromanaging less and less (both save games I've posted, I'm letting the AI govern my cities (set at happiness and production) - and they haven't a clue most of the time).
Emperor is a high difficulty level though, and the point of having higher difficulty levels is to present a challenge to the player. Using governors is setting yourself at the level of the AI's play, without having the AI's production or trade advantages, and with the corruption penalty for the higher level. Given that you want to play peacefully, thus negating any advantage you could get militarily, you should lose to the AI.
It's not due to a problem with Emperor level, it's due to the self-imposed constraints of your playstyle. I think a couple of basic changes to that playstyle will allow you to compete on Emperor, peacefully and without using tactics which you feel are too exploitative. I don't know if you'll find them fun or not though. It's one of the more micro-management necessary ways to play at high difficulty levels, and reads like a book.
Population Management:
The governors should never be used (as would apply to your playstyle, there are rare situations where they are helpful). This will allow you to have your cities much larger and more productive at every point through the game. Automating Workers is out too.
Food is king. Entremont's position (nicely moved to the coast to give access to the bonus grassland BTW
) is perfect for a 5 food per turn increase, which will allow 2 turn growth up to size 6 with a Granary. So build the Granary as early as possible. Also, you need quite a bit of terrain improvements in this position to get up to speed, so I would build a Worker right off. It will be a non-Granary Worker, but with short chop times and mined bonus grassland, you can still build the Granary about as fast as otherwise. It ends up being almost a free Worker, which is huge at that stage of the game.I would build Warrior, Worker, Granary at that start. Your build queue can include more Warriors, but get the Granary built soon. The Worker is probably always a good idea with this much food. You can chop Forests to catch up with any shields put into Warriors. At least one of the Forests needs to be saved though (make it one on the river so you get more commerce when using it) until a Plains can be mined later. This will be the 'after growth shields' tile that gets used every other turn, but won't impact food intake.
Entremont can easily be +5 food at size 2-6, and have 6-8 production at sizes 4-6, perfect for building Settlers in 4 turns. If you don't want to micromanage things as much, stay on the 'even' portions of the city sizes... empty Granary at 4 when you start the Settler, empty at 6 when you finish it. More efficient is to start half full at 4, finish half full at 6. This gives you 2 'after growth shield' tile uses per Settler, and will free up a bonus grassland for other use (only applies if you have overlap there though). It also will give you slightly more commerce.
Using Entremont this way will allow you to expand faster than the AI. Using your city spacing, there will be room for others set up similarly. At least one of these should be dedicated to Workers. Two (one which can also add Settlers) would be better at the start.
These are the most important cities you've built, and some comments on them:
Lugdunum - If you move this SW (1) a tile it can be a Settler factory too. You can move Alesia SW (1) a tile as well if you don't want overlap, but would hurt Alesia's production (2 bonus Grassland) and food (fish). Where it is, you can use it as Workers only until the government change. Probably best to keep it where it is, and use it as the Worker factory in no-overlap cases.
Richborough - Will work as a Settler factory before the desert cities are built in, Workers or a Courthouse after. Would be a decent place to build those deser' city Settlers at, then make the switch to Workers. If you move Richborough a tile NE (9) it gives you access to another bonus Grassland tile early on (or was it Forest?). Will overlap 'OCP' style with Lugdunum though.
Cataractonium - You didn't chop either Game forest. Chop at least one of them to help build a Granary. If you chop both, and build on the river between them (granted overlap with Richborough) the city will be a good site for a Worker factory. If you don't build on the river, you will need to Irrigate one of the Game tiles to get +5 food per turn.
Alesia - a good city site, but shouldn't be built first with an Agricultural civ. Keep on the River for the first 2-3 new cities. That extra food, dedicated to Workers, will help you get Alesia stronger, faster, than it would built first even. Alesia would be a good choice for a Barracks city because it's growth will be slow and it has decent production.
'Defense':
As you've noted in another thread, the RNG shouldn't be trusted with your cities. This means defense needs to be more pro-active, and much more fluid, than relying on Spears/Pikes. Gallic Swordsmen, Horsemen, and later Knights, are very good 'defenders'. GS are Spears which can counterattack and move 6 tiles on roads. They only cost as much as 2 Spears. This means wherever the AI shows up, you can get all your GS there to deal with them before your cities are threatened. Keep most of them centered in your empire, with only a few on the boarders. Border guards can be mostly Spears/Pikes, but you probably only need 1 or 2 per city at most. Against the AI it is usually possible to get by without any Spears/Pikes (or a very few to gaurd border Mountains and Hills), and rely almost entirely on Swords/Horses to kill anything entering your borders. I tend to go a few games between Spearmen builds.
If you want to be safe though, build Catapults. Ping down tough enemy units before hitting with GS or Horsemen. Just a few Catapults will allow you to build significantly less GS or Horsemen and do the same job. With mostly Cats and GS', you can be pretty much invulnerable and still make good use of the Republic.
Governments:
Definitely go with Republic here. At the latest you should be able to have it 50 turns after Philosophy. I find it better to get Philosophy, Code of Laws, trade those off to an AI, then research Literacy (which you can almost always get first), build Libraries, and then the AI will probably have researched Republic, making it cheaper for you to do so. With the higher population later, Libraries and/or AI's with it, you can end up getting it a little faster than going straight for it right after Philosophy. Sometimes you can even trade for it, but it will cost a lot of gold + Literacy.
Don't worry too much about helping the AI's to Republic. It tends to be easier to fight an AI who's in a Republic if it comes to that, and your neighbors will be able to help you keep up with the powers on the other continents.
Happiness:
Probably the biggest difference between Monarch and Emperor is the one citizen born content. This makes using the Luxury slider paramount. An entertainer gives no food, no production, and no commerce. An unhappy laborer, made content using the Luxury slider, will pay for it's own happiness, and give you food and production. In a representative government, or on the river, you'll even make more commerce. No contest in non-corrupt cities. Use the luxury slider to facilitate growth. In corrupt cities, use the best food tiles and make as many specialists (taxmen or scientists) as possible.
Garrisons:
Get a Barracks city with 5 production running quickly, and leave it on Warriors (or Spearmen if you really must
). If the city is going to hit it's population limit, build a Worker instead, then back to Warriors. With +2 food and +5 production, this city will build 4 Warriors and a Worker, or 2 Spearmen and a Worker every ten turns. Use the Warriors for Garrisons everywhere but the front line. By itself it can keep you safe and your cities full of garrisons if you have it up and running quickly. If you find yourself at war, start upgrading Warriors. Once you get to Republic, you'll want to get rid of just about all your city garrisons except on the borders. A centralized force of fast moving attacking units can protect your coasts and augment your border garrisons.Workers:
With 2 2 turn Worker factories, you should never have to work an unimproved tile, or move anywhere that doesn't already have roads. You'll end up with a surplus of Workers, which is a very good thing. Even +5 food per turn cities grow slowly once you get above 6 population. So build your population into 10 food Workers, and add them to cities as 20-40 food each. Pretty good investment on 10 shields, especially as they can improve the tiles they'll end up working as Laborers. You will be able to get your core cities to size 12 in the BC's if you want to. (Sometimes you have to hold back due to Luxury scarcity)
When improving tiles early on, make sure you get the ones that are needed done first, even if you end up wasting a Worker turn or two. For instance, Entremont building a Worker as the second turn would be perfect to add to the Worker just starting a road on the bonus Grassland. Irrigate/Road the wheat tile as the first improvement of course. After that, the sequence would be:
Turn 1: Worker1 moves to bonus Grassland
Turn 2: Worker1 starts road (3 turns), Worker 2 produced, moves to bonus Grassland
Turn 3: Worker2 starts helping with road (1 turn)
Turn 4: Worker1 and 2 start mine (3 turns)
Turn 7: Mine finished.
This gives you a second workable tile ASAP, which your +4 food city will need very quickly. It wastes a Worker turn (Worker2 moving onto an unroaded tile) to do so, but probably worth it as it will get your Granary up and running faster. Once you get caught up in tile improvements needed by Laborers though, always build the road with 1 Worker (exceptions with resources).
Late Expansion:
The Celtic map allows for expansion very late into the game. Keep a Settler factory going, build some Galleys from a Harbor city (Alesia or Verulamium would both work well), and Settle as much of that area as possible. If you get a Leader later in the game, you can make it productive by building the FP or Palace down there (might only want to try this once the FP is fixed though, it's hard to make it work right now). Otherwise, Irrigate everything and make Specialists. Will raise your free units, give you more power in the AI's eyes, keep the AI's from getting too big, grab resources (especially Luxuries in this case), build Workers, and add some tax or research to your civ.
Defending those cities will be more problematic, but you can look at them as expendible, and if/when the AI does attack them, trade their core for your 'worthless' cities that are drawing them away from the important ones.
Research:
I don't like the Celt's starting techs, not much that can be researched right off that the AI's won't already have once you get it. The Wheel is a decent choice to go full bore for, and you can get it relatively quickly because you'll be building up a big city at the start. Mysticism is a 'hut' tech, the first one an AI will get second teir in most cases. I went for the Alphabet at 50 turns, as a failsafe in case there was no one with Alphabet on the continent, and ended up trading for it on turn 30. Either way on this map you're screwed it seems like (Aztecs and Vikings got The Wheel and Mysticism very early in my game), but once you trade for Alphabet you can still get Writing and Philosophy first.
You can stay ahead of/even with the other continent even without a strong tech partner. People always say that research isn't possible on Emperor, but it is, and with the population boom you can pull off on this map (I was at 26-28% of world population basically from turn 20 on) you research power is tremendous. Especially if you grab the Ivory and Spices to the south, and set up a trade route with the Vikings (build roads for them if you have to) for Wines so you can bring the Luxury rate down a bit.
Exploration:
Very important! 950AD and there are still parts of your continent (unsettled) that you don't see. You can see the free Ivory down there, which is one of the main things to be looking for. When you see something important, grab it if it's free! An early Curragh or two will show even more opportunities. Two islands you can reach safely with Galleys, and plenty of time to Settle those islands.
I sometimes postpone exploration a bit to build a Granary (like in this case), but it needs to be done as quickly as possible. The Luxury slider helps a lot, as you can send out your first few Warriors and rely on it to keep your people working.
As an Agricultural civ, follow the rivers when possible. Find city sites, but also keep in mind the cardinal direction you are going. Making contacts are still key.
Diplomacy:
Checking the AI every turn will pay off. If one AI has something and another doesn't, you can only play middleman if you recognize the opportunity. Early game, if the AI puts a Worker in their capital, it's a huge opportunity. A starting tech can usually get 2 Workers.
This is one I don't think most people like doing, but over the course of a game it will be worth several techs and thousands of gold. Check the AI as often as you can without ruining your fun.
Huts:
Leave them alone around you when you aren't expansionist. There are some exceptions, like if you haven't built any military yet. Emperor barbs aren't too bad, but will still hurt, and huts give out barbs more often than not. You can often save the huts around you for a bit, build up enough military, and then open them. If you do happen to get a tech, it will be a better one for waiting too.
Make contact first. If you send a Warrior in a direction to make contact, avoid huts until he makes it, or you figure out no one is around. You need to find out if someone is there most importantly, anything you can expect from a hut pales in comparison. If you make contact feel free to start opening huts. Especially if you find a hut on their borders, or on good defensive terrain. If you get barbs on the AI's borders, check them the next few turns! They put their Workers in their capitol when barbs are threatening.
Preferences:
This may seem silly, but I've checked well over a thousand games for the GOTM over at Civfanatics, and I can tell you that by and large the players who are most successful use certain preference settings. Some of them are obviously 'powergamer' settings, like turning off animations and such, which detract from the feel of the game when used, but add to the ability to spend all your time micromanaging things. Those aren't the ones I'm talking about though.
Turn on 'Always wait at end of turns'. This is important. It gives you time to check all your cities, make sure the luxury slider is set correctly, change laborers around, contact the AI's and see what they have, ect. You can do this most of the time without it, but then you always have to keep in mind if you have another unit still active when moving each one. The fact that you can't hit shift-d for diplomacy when a Worker is active (why oh why did they make shift-d for cleanup?) really makes diplomacy much more frustrating unless it's done at the end of turn. When you get those Worker factories up and running you'll notice this a lot. Workers that finish jobs in one turn usually mean you want to re-assign a Laborer, which is best done after the job is complete so you can see the effects instead of having to calculate it out.
Also set 'Always build previously built unit' and 'Ask for build orders after unit construction' to on. These are just to remind you what cities are doing, and keep you focused on 'important' cities. It really helps. Your Worker and Settler factories probably need to have Laborers re-assigned every other turn (if not every turn in some cases), and so getting that popup every other turn keeps you aware of the city and it's needs. Same with the Barracks city which needs to change to a Worker every time it would end up hitting the population limit (actually, a turn before then).
Wonders:
The way you build cities, I think it would be a good idea for you to focus on building the Pyramids. On Emperor the AI tends to build the Pyramids around 1000BC. You can hit 1100BC most of the time. This one, I'd say you can finish the Pyramids by around 1300BC if you really go for it, but pushing too hard does hurt. Build a city with high production capacity, and then add some workers from a Worker factory (after improving the tiles of course). I would build the Settler for the wonder city before the Granary in this case.
The Pyramids will allow you to forgo building all but 1 Granary (the first one), and won't really hurt your expansion too much as it's more a military city (high production) you'll be converting to an early Wonder city. If by chance you miss the Pyramids, you should be to Literacy by about the same time, and can build the GL. Don't rely on it for tech, it's culture and keeping an AI from coasting themselves. The Oracle is also decent for cultural games. Artemis is probably something to avoid unless you're going ICS early.
But you want to play culture and peace! You’re nowhere near the tech lead (despite temporary position), and you’ll only fall back rapidly from here. Your tech position comes only because you went on the offensive – something your entire playstyle is supposed to disavow! Absent the Great Library built near your border (within easy reach), you’re still in the ancient age in the 900’s AD 
) and only when I know I'm finished for the turn do I move the waiting unit.
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