Well, I gave it a second attempt and while I still lost in the end, it much was a much more fun experience.
Settled in place again and generally tried to make decisions as if I hadn't already seen the map. As for Strategy, I decided to adopt the one posted by bc1 earlier in this thread: honor tree, no buildings, one city, steal workers, start with archery tech, bully CS for cash...
Initially it went well, Shoshone went down on turn 73, Warsaw on turn 107. At that point, Germany was looking like the real threat, so I turned my army West and headed for Berlin.
I was overconfident, I didn't notice the defence strength of Berlin.I think with a little better planning on approaching the city, I could have taken it. As it was, I should probably gone out trying to take it down anyway, rather than retreating.
I made peace with Germany and headed East. The problem was, my chosen strategy was poorly suited for any kind of long-term game, and I now found myself well behind in science and leaking cash like a sieve.
I spent the 80-90 turns trying to catch up. In the meantime I took Lisbon and Marrakech. Just as Marrakech was about to fall, Germany DoW and moved about a dozen units towards Warsaw. Now, I had left a scout watching the passage north of the mountains between Warsaw and Germany, in hopes of getting early warning of Germany's approach. I forgot to check on it, so it failed in that respect but... Those dozen units, who could have crushed Warsaw's meagre defences easily, spent the next 10 turns apparently trying to decide what to attack first. Their movements reminded me of a bunch of gnats, just randomly flitting about. This gave me enough time to get a veteran Impi and a great general to Warsaw and plant a citadel. A few turns later the main army returned and saved the city.
Having fought off Germany, I looked at my options. A direct assault on Germany seemed suicidal, since they had a city just on the other side on the narrow passage I mentioned earlier. So I decided to take out Assyria first. No problem. As I finished the off, my GPT became a positive number for the first time since very early in the game.
Unfortunately, all 5 remaining CIV's decided to DoW at the same time. I might have been able to fight them off, but with no trade routes or trading luxuries etc., I started bleeding cash again (-50 to 60 GPT). My science was crippled and then units started disbanding. What finally persuaded me to give up the fight was: When everyone started attacking me, my military strength was almost equal to Germany's. The AI being what it is, I maintained at least a 5:1 kill ratio. After 30 turns of this, I looked at and discovered that Germany had managed to gain a huge lead in strength.
A few things I noticed.
1. I love Mt. Kilimanjaro! It does occur to me, that for some kinds of maps, it is more unbalancing than most ruins luck could ever be.
2. Zulu combined with the Honor policy meant the units got to gain a lot of levels. I had a crossbowman that hit level 12. Barrage 3, Accuracy 3, Cover 2, March, Logistics, Long Range.
3. Given the AI combat weakness, even a small number of units can defend a city successfully. Brazil sent at least 10 units up against Shoshone's old capital. If I had left a one unit garrison there, I am almost certain it would not have fallen. Heck, if I had dispatched a longswordsman I had my own capital right away, I would arrived in time to save the day.