Nice job on this mod. Definitely makes for an interesting endgame. I've been playing as Britain, with a somewhat-colonial and high-science strategy. Most of the game was similar to a regular Earth map, but now that the AI have realized I'm threatening to win a space race, they've really upped the ante. I've been nuked no fewer than 11 times (not counting two nukes I shot down after belatedly building SDI - although I'm glad the first nuke was successful), have fought most powers in the world lately, and am generally striking a delicate balance between spaceship production and military defences. In 4 turns, I'll have a minimal spaceship, barring disaster, but it's been a wild ride.
I haven't used too much of the new techs yet... built a Dreadnought (which looks an awful lot like a ship), used it a bit, lost it against a Main Battle Tank, and it's been too expensive to rebuild. The AI have invaded me with Iron Men, but I've either been able to airstrike them to a stalemate or buy them off at the last second. I've built a few Clones, and to my knowledge no one else has, but not enough to make a big difference, and my Clone city is now dedicated to spaceships. I just build my first Arcology, the second in the world after Rome as far as I'm aware, in Perth, in Western Australia (most of Australia is my colony, and central South America used to be until the AIs dogpiled me). They're too expensive to build when I could build spaceship parts for a similar cost, but I can buy them slowly. Shielded Arcologies could prove useful if the AI remains so aggressive.
I'm hoping Cornwall, Wales, and Iceland escape being nuked... it's a dangerous world. I did manage to return fire against the Tupi once, but spaceships are winning over nukes in build priority. I think there's about 15-20 civs remaining... there was a fair amount of consolidation and land wars in Asia in the late 1800s and 1900s.
Only thing I'm not sure is quite right is the tech speed on Epic. It seems like things were going pretty fast. It's 1995 and I'm already finished with the tech tree, and I've been going slow lately. Though, the AIs don't seem to be quite there yet - some do have Iron Men, but not all - so perhaps my science strategy was simply more successful than I realized?
At any rate One More Turn Syndrome has kicked in, so it's time to get some sleep!
Update: I don't know if it's what you changed or the Better AI, but they are really trying their best to keep me from winning. It's a never-ending dogpile as they try to destroy me before I colonize space. And eventually their numbers proved overwhelming. It's now summer 2002, and Operation Sealion has been in full swing for quite awhile, and Australia, who sent most of her troops to reinforce Britain, is falling to new enemies. Perth is the last major city in Australia, and just finished some SS Casing, and I've been forced to launch a near-minimal spaceship (2 SS Casings, 1 of all else). Cornwall is Spanish, but Perth, Ireland, England, Scotland, and Tasmania remain. The last will be the last stand if need be, as it has many troops and no airport to have them leave.
The latest tactic I've adopted is self-nuking.
I'd thought about nuke-and-razing the Low Countries from France and with it the Statue of Liberty, but they SDI'ed that idea. So instead I nuked the large concentration of French, Spanish, and Viking troops in the Midlands. While it's quite effective, you know things aren't good when your best tactic is to nuke yourself - at least all cities were out of range.
I'm hoping that will be enough to save Scotland and England for awhile, and it already convinced France and the Vikings to make peace.