Ok, so I decided to have a go at this with the Mayans. However, this is my first non-UHV attempt and I'm not sure how well I'm doing. How do you overcome the massive tech advantages the Europeans have? It's currently 1820 and I'm way, way behind on both tech and score (third from bottom in score). I have no techs I can trade for anything (and never did, really), and the Pentagon and Kremlin were built some time ago (1770s). Advice anyone?
On an unrelated note, RAGE against that bloody economy rating!!! Predictably it started declining in around the 13th century or so and despite spamming windmills and frantically building as many money buildings as I can it's never been higher than two stars again and has consistently kept me in Unstable for hundreds of years now. Of course I'd probably be fine except I've been hit by the effects of TWO Great Depressions despite running Mercantilism and not even having contact with the civs in question!
I've also been hit by two plagues... is this a bug? I thought the Americans were only supposed to get one.