I headed inland to start, following some advice I read in one of Snaaty's earlier threads, hoping to make some space for later cities. Finding gold and floodplains was a huge relief; having abandoned an awesome starting spot for the first time in my cIV career, I half expected to find nothing but featureless deserts.
My second city took the original spot, and I chopped the Great Wall there for its first build, the plan being to grab the Pyramids with the resulting GE. However, thanks to a couple of horribly

moves (especially researching Writing before MC), the Pyramids were built on the same turn as I got the GE

.
I played on for a few turns, but it was clear that without Representation I was going to be Monty-food before I even reached the mid-game; I hadn't built a single cottage, and with only three cities (and no way to get any more without going to war), my economy was laughable, as was my military.
So, and because I'd only just missed out, I went back to my oldest autosave (about fifteen turns earlier), to see if I could get my forge built one turn quicker. I tried everything. I must have restarted from that same save twenty times or more, micromanaging every detail with the aid of a calculator, but there was simply no way to speed up MC and the forge.
In the end, I went into the worldbuilder and gave myself enough gold (150 iirc) to run the slider up a notch or two and nail MC in time. My economy is now ticking over nicely, and I've managed to trade myself into a position where I can at least put up a fight. I still haven't a hope of winning the game, but hopefully I can survive to see how things play out.
Or, on the other hand, maybe I'll just cheat a little more...