I posted some general remarks on my game already. I'll post some statistics/etc now that the submission deadline has passed [IMO posting earlier would be just asking for trouble, if playing for a Blue Star].
This was my first Blue Star attempt, and I wanted a plan, but I haven't seen any threads about Blue Star strategy. In hindsight, that's probably because a strong player can get a Blue Star by just playing the longest. You mainly need 255 cities, a few hundred engineers, and about 20 turns of growth in Democracy. Your cities need a few crucial improvements, like aqueducts/etc but IMO you have lots of good choices there. You can pay for these easily with a Fundy phase. I got thru the tech tree with an SSC and moderately strong trade, but I doubt that is necessary - probably a tech every 2-3 turns is good enough. Anyway, I started with just a few tips that I could recall from CFC threads (heavily paraphrased):
LaFayette - Playing for high score requires more patience than skill.
Ali Ardavan - the constraint is real life time, not Civ2 time.
Ace - It's about making 255 cities of approx size 20... using lots of engineers until they have no work left to do.
I also looked over some GOTM saves by others (DoM and Starlifter IIRC) and especially Andu Idorin's GOTM60 (earth map) save, which got over 8000 points. I practiced a little with growth methods from my own GOTM58 save - my biggest game so far. I decided to focus on getting my population score over 6000 - enough for a Blue Star in most GOTMs. I didn't worry much about Future Tech or peace points. I have never built many large cities and didn't know whether to think more about food, happiness or pollution. The main constraint for this map at Prince level turned out to be food.
Here are my pre-game plans compared to waht happened:
Plans: 4000BC to 1AD (100 turns): Play ICS, but with 3 squares between cities, until I get about 40 (and then think more about spacing). Aim for about 4 WoWs, 20 techs, a decent SSC. Don't be a perfectionist - aim for about 6hrs or less...
Results: Almost exactly as planned - 41 cities, 4WoWs (MPE, Pyr, LH, Col), 25 techs, Republic, SSC = size 11. About 7 RL hours.
Plans: 1AD to 500AD (50 more turns): Grow to about 240 cities, with 10 WoWs, 45 techs, enough boats to access the whole map, 50 engineers, about 8hrs...
Results: Slower growth than expected, partly because this map does not conatin 255 good sites. About 155 cities, with 11 WoWs, 50 techs, Fundy, SSC size 20, about 95 engineers. I have conquered the French for their land. They respawn, and a lonely Viking appears on a forested peninsula, with no good city sites, and my troops nearby. Later, I destroyed the other civs, but let this guy wander forever in the forest. Actually, I cleared most of the forest for myself and built cities around the him. The map was already getting crowded and I was even building my cities between Greek and Zulu ones, daring them to attack. Not sure, but I guess this phase took about 10-15 hours.
Plans: 500AD to 1000AD (50 more turns): Fundy phase to prepare Demo growth (255 size 3 cities, with harbors and aq's at least, a road/RR system, almost all the WoWs, 70 techs) about 4hrs...
Results: About 220 cities, roughly 70 techs. Fundy is easy to play - lots of gold for whatever you want. I switched to Demo in about 900AD, so most cities grew to size 12 by 1000AD. Pop 188m. I had over 255 engineers for a while [which confuses the Defense Minister], and converted about 95 percent of the map's terrain to farmland. Eventually I noticed that Andu didn't terraform so much in GOTM60 - also that keeping a few forests, or mined hills, is good for production. I didn't exactly copy him... for example, he built 200 airports, but I didn't see the point, and built none.
1000AD population score = 4100, with 15WoWs. The SSC maxed out at size 29 and became a support center for lots of engineers. The later turns took well over an hour, so I guess this phase took 30-40 hours, WAY over my 4 hour estimate. I didn't realize how long it takes to build 1500 improvements, or to adjust after a revolution, for example. Also, I spent (wasted?) a lot of time moving city workers around, and rehoming engineers, trying to keep most of my cities growing.
Plans: after 1000AD Grow cities to size 21+ from demo-celebration. Handle pollution, food shortages, etc. Maybe add a FCT phase to pump up the score.
Results: This phase only lasted about 20 turns, because I could see my cities reaching their peaks, and I was too tired for much more (eg making lots of food vans just for score). The Zulu's finally declared war, and I wiped them out in one turn. Communism ended lots of celebrations. Hoover Dam helped with pollution in Offshore-Platform cities (I had no factories). I switched to Anarchy/Fundy for one Oedo turn (1060-1070) to wipe out the Greeks and Egyptians [leaving only the Lone Viking alive], then back to Demo.
I built a 5.7year ship in 1170AD for 100 points. I didn't want the 400 spaceship points anymore. Also I was thinking about finishing up for better chances at Gold. I built the last 8 WoW's after launch, and still had about 70 food vans left over [cities with nothing better to do had made these] to raise my population further. But the effect was tiny, and I never actually used the FCT (AFAIK). LOTS of engineers were also disbanded (making this ICS player cry).
END 1175AD (222turns): Citizen score 8172 + 560 for WoWs + 100 for the ship + 45peace + 15FT + 25barb = 8917pts. Pop = 320,000,000. I still had about 50 boats and maybe 100 other units (many were disbanded). About 50 of the 6400 squares were still forest/etc... the rest were ocean or farmland.
Ideas about Gold Medal strategies: There is a saying that GOTM scoring favors quick games... partly true. For players with time and patience, this kind of game gives pretty good chances for both Blue and Gold. Probably better chances at Gold than early conquest. I was not really trying to finish early this time (in fact, I was fighting against my EC habits). But the lateral growth under Fundy and the vertical growth under Demo both kept my GOTM score rising pretty steadily through most of the game. I probably got many more GOTM points than I usually do [and my games usually last about 100-120 turns, not 220].
For fun, I still prefer a shorter game. For a challenge, I still prefer EC.
But one tech every two turns is quite different from two techs per turn 
sorry
