We scout in the only direction that would reveal something of use.
Going east will provide more rivertiles but we lose turn, forest and plains hill start. SIP.
First we meet the Duch (turn 5), all spypoints on them. Turns out they are most distant civ. Pangea can be funny sometimes. And we discover Isabella last - she doesn't bother scouting in our direction.
Research went BW, TW, and started on Pottery, when we discover this gem of a site: Copper&Pigs. Buildorder: worker, warrior, worker, settler. Workers improved corn, chopped settler, irrigated riverside grassland and build the long road to Copper City (known as Shanghai).
Finished pottery, writing. The map is starting to get congested so we settle right in the face of the adversaries - including 2 pop whip in capital and 3 pop whip at Shanghai. We are preparing a few helper cities around the capital. The will provide cottage growth. First cottage is already finished and is a hamlet now.
A barb city has spawned on the southern peninsula. We are the third civilization to discover Alphabet, so we trade around. Not much available though. We start currency. Turns out I miscalculated Isabella's capital culture growth. This is now severely limiting our southern city. Good thing we finally get our hands on ironworking and start clearing the jungle. Unfortunately no iron is available. No cho-ko-nus for now.
On a side note - we are forced to settle Clam City (Xian) as Saladin is sending a settler party towards us. A bit later we settle the jungle Banana+Dye helper city as Persians are approaching.
Our camping city attack Axeman is able to snatch the barbarian city from the claws of the Persian army as well.
We get Currency, Aestetics first and actually have a pretty good tech lead. (somewhat)
We have been unfair to Isabella it seems. She is completely blocked out - with three cities.
The game is going pretty well. We decide to go into Buddhism as the Spanish, the Dutch, and the Sumerian are Buddhist. So is the AP.
Then things start to get REALLY funny. After a lengthy preparation Sumeria decides to attack their best buddy - Spain, instead of the worst enemy - HRE.
We refuse a silly request from Isabella and, lo a behold, she DOWs us a couple of turns later... with only two cities. She is even able to send a stack our way, even though Sumerians are kicking her nice butt.
Well... what can you do - we start whipping some rag tag militia, trade for construction and... there are 8 more turns until we can cancel my Elephants deal to Saladin. No War Elephants for us.
So - two city walls are whipped, we trade for archery
, and soon an army of axemen, archers and catapults is marching towards Madrid.
Just as our armies are about to the take the city - my dear Izzy gets to Feudalism and decides to peacevassal to Chalemagne. WTH. Well at least Sumeria is also dragged in the war.
This is the exact moment when Saladin decides to demand from us 800 gold. Really? As we duly refuse he declares war right away. The northern front is pretty big - I am forced to whip 3 citywalls and start pumping archers and axes.
Fortunately we are able to take Isabella's two cities and get a peace treaty with Charlemagne. Which nets us some nice wonders as well.
During the period of peace we were able to get a few wonders ourselves
(thank you mr. capital marble). We built the Parthenon to fend off the Spanish cultural pressure, but were also able to get TGL, Sistine, MoM.
I was especially glad to get the Buddhist shrine since funds were running pretty low.
We were driving the war with Saladin into a stalemate waiting for the troops from the Spanish campaign to return but after a few futile attacks on our well reinforced protective walls+archers+longbowmen (I was able to trade for Feudalism) he agreed to sign the peace treaty. We even got some gold for our troubles.
Just as I was shifting my focus to rebuilding my crumbling empire (getting Buddhist buildings, forges, courthouses) we get DAGGERED by Persia. Well, well, well...
One more city walls whipped. This time in the capital. Fortunately we've got enough troops already. No problemo.
Our lands 1170AD
I even lead the scoreboard. This has actually never happened to me at this stage of the game.
And huge tech lead.
As I get Steel I decide the time has finally come to get some wars on our terms. Why steel? Because we have no horses. And Isabella's lands have provided nice sources of Iron.
Our target is Persia. Cyrus is backward and our culture is pressuring him hard, allowing easy access.
But firs we have to fortify our flanks. First Sumeria is bribed on HRE and then we do this:
I have actually never demanded something from the AI before.
A quick look at the scoreboard shows our power is double the power of the Dutch. I was pretty confident we are well above Arabia as well.
The war against the Sumerians is quick and painless. He vassals, we liberate his cities. Then we shift back towards Saladin. The Sumerian campaign is so swift we actually have to wait 2 turns before we can DOW Saladin. We get two cities, he vassals. I actually kept one of his cities as it was 50/50 culture anyway.
The Dutch had no stack of any importance, so their demise was quick.
This is the time Gilgamesh gets out of Buddhism and Monarchy and drops from Friendly straight to Cautious. Too late to do any damage, though.
We transfer the entire army to the eastern front. We demand world maps form Sumeria (or else!). Gilgamesh is quick to comply and provide us with 10 turns of peace treaty. We are now free to attack the Holy Roman Empire.
Our stack:
His stack is actually bigger (~70 units) but a barrage of cannonballs demolishes his grenadier/cuirassier army as cavalry tramples them underhoof.
Sumeria is then quick to follow and we get our Conquest Victory. Hurray.
Well done comrade Mao!
Beating a map at 1310 AD without AP is great game play. I tried a more conventional approach, building TGL and Parthenon and libbing steal around 1020 AD, but warring took longer and by the time I could vassel the south and the west, the east had infantry, so I went for UN, which won around the early 1820s - with a third of your score 
So one does neither need rifles nor cannons to win an immortal pangea map, its possible much earlier that way...
