I love this map. Right now I'm playing the BtS incarnation, although it's only 18 civs. There are similarities, such as China still being a dominant player, so I think discussing both in the same thread isn't too confusing.
In general:
Domination win: I find that if you don't vassalize anyone, you can win a domination win with all of Asia and Europe. If you vassalize you'll need all of Africa and your vassals should have territory in Australia and Oceania, but this is usually the case anyway. I have gotten a domination win with China, Rome, Russia, and Hammurabi (on the BtS version). One big, big thing in Earth maps is that the early shrines such as Buddhism and Hinduism have HUGE incomes, sometimes as much as 100 GPT alone, so capturing these is very lucrative indeed.
Suez Canal: In warlords you must build a city there, which means razing anything that is near there which would prevent a city from being there. In BtS you can build a fort, which is awesome. Controlling this is huge. Either way if you control it the AI values open borders with you much, much more, which means more trade and less likelihood of backstabbing.
Same deal with Panama, but the AI usually builds a city there anyway if you are not in the Wsetern Hemisphere, and if you are on Asia this becomes less important anyway.
Space Race: In Warlords, if you let Gandhi live he will try and get to space early. Mao also does this as well, it can be very frustrating to have a great long game going only to see Gandhi with his 4 cities beat you.
Cultural: Never tried it on this map. In BtS Pacal always goes for a cultural win but if you give Sitting Bull enough tech he will always declare war on Pacal and take one of these citys out. I always keep Sitting Bull even with Pacal tech wise, which is easy because both are fairly backwards (but Pacal is ahead of Sitting Bull if you do nothing).
Diplomacy: There is ALWAYS someone to trade with! In BtS, meeting your cohorts on the opposite side of the world and developing astro is important, because the overseas trade can be huge, especially with customs houses. Religious wise, basically try to maintain good relations with everyone who you are not trying to take over at any given moment... which is kind of self explanatory I guess. The usual culprits will backstab you if you are not powerful enough.
Civs:
BtS Hamurabi is particularly fun (or any civ which can control the middle east, which would be Saladin, Egypt, or Persia in warlords) because you can control all the oil. Especially in BtS, you can spam all other civs with spies and just destroy their oil wells and monopolize the oil. Makes a domination win pretty easy, although in my last win no one besides me even got close to getting Industrialism anyway.
I find that Mao is always a powerhouse. China has such a great start w/ the grassland and the resources, and Korea and India also have great land to be taken. Japan is also a nice easy grab since Toku is always backwards. With Mao though, you MUST take Australia as that may be your only source of aluminum unless you go into Russia or Europe or India. You also must make sure to grab the oil near Beijing but that should be within your cultural borders by the time to get SM.
Rome's strat is self explanatory- clear out Europe! There is also something uniquely satisfying in playing Rome and taking over Europe, Britain, the Mediterranean and the Middle East by the middle ages. Europe is also a great spot land wise- so many resources, tons of aluminum, tons of hills for production... it's a great "core" area. But remember you need oil, which means the Middle East or deep into Russia, or waiting for plastics.
I find Madrid or Moscow to be a great Iron works cities as well. (My main grassland river cities are usually tied up with towns or specialists by the time steel comes round.)
The US (or Sitting Bull in BtS) also has a GREAT starting spot. All grassland and rivers and hills and forests... makes for a great CE or SE, your choice! The grassland forests in North America are also a great National park and/or Iron works location, and once you clear out South American jungles, an Ironworks planted there with a levee and watermills is, I think, the most production you could theoretically get out of an ironworks as almost every tile is a river tile! Western Hemisphere civs MUST colonize South America before the other civs do. The Eastern hemisphere doesn't get there till later so you have some time. Hannibal, Shaka, and whoever is left in Europe with access to the Atlantic (France in warlords, the Dutch and Hannibal in BtS) are the people who generally will try and colonize it. Shaka like to invade you in South America also.
Egypt: Believe it or not a war chariot rush is possible against Shaka. Africa is, in general, not the greatest continent as it is mostly plains, hills, and desert. Egypt should take over all of Africa as quickly as possible but should also expand into the middle east and Europe as Africa doesn't provide the greatest environs. The middle of the continent, once you remove the jungle, is good grassland, and the Nile is obviously an awesome commerce producing powerhouse, but otherwise its mostly production heavy. Great for warmongering or quickly building space parts, but you need to be pretty efficient to get to space first as tech wise you may be a bit behind. Obsoletes wonder strat could be implemented here as you have stone and marble and plenty of food, and Egypt lets you run those early priests.
Sorry for the ramble, that's all I could think of so far.
