I know this is an old thread, anyway I absolutely love the Earth18 Civs map and have recently been playing it a lot (have played all the civs) - recently won a monstrous game on Prince with Mansa Musa and the awesome Next War mod (CultVic turned off, Space win).
Generally agree with comments above that England is a powerhouse.
Cities: London on the spot, must be focused on culture, research. Aim to get the stone quickly, Stonehenge etc, game plays itself. Normal Great Lib + Heroic Epic strat, bulb to Liberalism etc works v well.
2nd City = Aberdeen, on the spot on the east coast in Scotland. Picks up 2xfish, sheep, fir, iron, deer - becomes absolutely monstrous - and also North Sea Oil later - specialized for production.
3rd City = Plymouth, in the far Southwest of mainland - picks up 1xfish and the coal in Wales (the hills above should always be mined) and in the early game one can micro-manage growth/wonder production between London and Plymouth by swapping the overlapping tiles. Great spot for Maoui Statues.
4th City = Dublin, in the middle of the East of Ireland to catch the fish. Not very productive - specialize for commerce, GP farm. Also Louis will settle it (with some horribly misplaced city) if you do not.
Expansion: very difficult to expand safely in Scandinavia albeit some very sweet spots (Oslo - too near German culture; Bergen/Alesund - never very productive, placeholder spot for the silver, whale and later oil; Trondheim - very good spot, difficult to defend v Germans/Russians; Lulea or Hammerfest - great spots however all of the previous points plus almost certainly already settled by Germany.
If you do go Scandi, you will certainly need very heavy defence and good blocking.
I had a game where I founded a religion which the comp placed in Bergen/Alesund - yup, then pretty much constant war with Germans and/or Russians was guaranteed.
So if one sticks to the four British cities, one already has a massive advantage relative to eg France and Spain. Beeline to Astronomy (free tech on Liberalism) and colonize all the sweet spots in South America (of course never trade Astro and NAmerica is pretty busy). Totally winning/won position most of the time.
One point is that Montezuma will probably be very strong but behind in tech and dow you as soon as you settle in the Americas. I always settle Caracas or Gyana (north coast - spot with fish, corn and oil or the amazing spot between (and on) the river and sea which catches the fish in BFC and 2xAluminium and 1xgems). First SA settlement needs 2 galleons - 4xmuskets, worker, settler. 1 or even 2 muskets will not be enough if Monty lands a stack of Maces, cats etc.
Point about Uranium: one may repeat history and go for Melbourne and/or Queensland in SE/NE Australia. A great spot in Queensland catches copper and uranium in its BFC - however Asoka/Qin/Toku will already have settled at least some of Australia.
Also 2 x Uranium on the West African coast - Gabon and Namibia - if you don't mind fighting for it.
Either of the two river squares north the mouth of the Kongo are both awesome - if you want to raze/settle. First square (Pointe Noire) catches the Uranium in BFC, second square (still on coast and river but IE), does not however absolutely great spot (Brazzaville) if you can keep the resource culturally.
Also if going for cultural victory, Paris will probably flip and there is Uranium in the BFC - however Spanish/Roman/German culture is a serious problem.
Anyway, by some or all of these methods one obtains all the vital modern resources. SAmerica becomes an incredibly productive base with some incredible cities - it really almost does not matter where you settle after Caracas and Gyuana though fwiw I prefer (and in this order): Belem (1E 1SE of spice), Campina Grande (1 NE of gems - with oil and marine resource to north in BFC), Vitoria (catches coal, fish, aluminium and gems in BFC), Passo Fundo on the incredible spot slightly inland on river but still on coast). As for the barb city, it is better with the above placement to raze it and found Buenos Aires (sorry to any Urugyuans out there).
A few other good spots to the west and south remain though these will never be great cities.
Of course, this SAmerican strat works with France/Spain/Mali etc if you get there first.
Anyway, just my own take on how to play England - I await the ridicule for posting to such an old thread, not to mention any n00bish tendencies revealed by the above