Well, I finished the game, but a Christmas gift this was not! It
was rather weird, though.
I was beaten to the GLH, but I managed to build the Colossus in 660. It would continue to be effective for me until I finally research Astronomy in 1901.
While slowing filling the island and pushing back the barbs, I went for Optics as quickly as possible (which meant 1020 AD), only to discover that all the AI hated me! Although they'd pay gold for my resources, they would never trade their own resources to me and they'd never trade techs or open their borders. I paid off Hammurabi and Mehmet to end the wars we started with, but I was resigned to being dogpiled by an alliance of AI, all of whom had better tech, better production, and a better GDP.
But, oddly enough, that never happened.
Sitting Bull landed on the eastern end of my island in 1695 and settled two cities there, the first garrisoned by an elephant, the second by a knight. I didn't want him there, so I declared war in 1720 and captured both. Then, not wanting his superior navy to start sinking all of my fishing boats, I paid him off with gunpowder for peace. So ended my glorious war of conquest!
Then began a long worldwide space race (one I expected to lose, since I was still far behind in tech, GDP, and production). Around 1926, I noticed that Mehmet had an fleet in the open ocean and that he was at WHEOOHRN, so I expected that the attack was finally coming. But, no, the fleet was only on maneuvers; it kept sailing out and then back, year after year.
There were a number of low-level techs that I had skipped for being useless in this game. I decided to finally use some spy points to steal them from Mehmet (who was last in score by this point--I'd crept up to #5). I stole Monotheism, Theology, and finally Agriculture --in 1957! Is that a record late date for that tech?
I also stole some gold, but a couple spies getting caught were finally enough for Mehmet to go to war. And so, in 1962, he launched a surprise amphibious invasion on a city defended by infantry and a machine gun. His invasion force--two rifles, a grenadier, a knight and an elephant--all died on the beaches. On the very next turn, Zara Yaqob proposes an UN votes to "stop the war against Mehmet". Everyone except Sitting Bull (yes, including the aggressor Mehmet) voted for the proposal. So ended my glorious war of national defense!
Hammy and Sitting Bull were well on their way to building their spaceships, while I was still trying to finish Apollo, when Asoka won a Cultural Victory in 1969. Maybe there's green ambulance in my future.
I may retry this game for fun with the Adventurer save, to see if an easier start will let me take the offensive. It certainly wasn't in the cards for me with the Contender save under this set-up, and I can't imagine tackling the Deity save.