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I just found the others and have been able to trade techs quite easily to catch up to the mid players.  Washington and Hamurabi are still ahead but I've got two Great Spies in both of their countries (saved em up since they were pretty useless against a civ I was going to destroy swiftly).  Pumping out spies and caravels to try and steal my way to the top.  For the first time I acutally ended up going in the negative at 0% science spending.  Wow, that was some bad times but I survived by producing tech for a while until I got my house in order.  Now I just need to catch up with the rest in population and land space.  Definately going to be an uphill battle.

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Really? My experience was quite the contrary. After having conquered my own continent, I had more space than any individual rival, so despite lagging behind in tech, I managed to roll on by sheer grit... and a military industry of national socialist proportions. The war against Saladin's Egyptians was a case in point - my cannons, musketmen and pikemen against their grenadiers and cuirassiers. I had to let the cannons do the brunt of all attacking, while protecting them from counterattack by stacking them with pikemen with formation, and musketmen with pinch.

I have to admit, though, I was lucky to see some weird tactical decisions by Hammurabi (who seemed to be the only one commanding his own civilization!). He beelined for Mass Media, even skipping Assembly Line in the process! Apparently he tried for a diplomatic victory. Suffice to say that that attempt didn't turn out too well when my (now having partially caught up with the tech leaders) army of infantry and artillery goosestepped over Babylonia.

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Interesting.  I've not yet discovered the extent to which each individual's land areas are yet so perhaps I'm not too bad off.  I always struggle with population probably due to poor land management but perhaps that's not to bad either now that you mention it.  Their cities do have higher populations though but that's because my deficit was so bad that I couldn't build any more cities for a while.

Unfortunately work has hit hard and I'm not sure I'll finish this one in time but perhaps I'll still post my results, even if I'm late.  This has been a challenging yet fun game so far.

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Mighty leader Bolan Longpants did destroy the Mayan empire BC. Two cities were captured using dog soldiers and now the natives are trying to reach optics asap. A spy is waiting as we expect to be behind one we meet the other civilization out there. My first move was settler to the NW which turned out to be a mistake. The blue spot is a much better location for a capitol because of the stone. We will see how much 'this mistake' will cost me in the end.

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For my part, I didn't destroy the Mayans until a bit into the Middle Ages, using crossbowmen and trebuchets for the conquest. I know I could have attacked earlier, but since I had a significant lead over them and a lot of uncolonized land left to be filled, I figured I could just as well let them help me fill up that land before I conquered them. I think my first caravel was only launched shortly after the Maya capitulated (I let them keep one worthless city just to give me the happiness bonus for having a vassal).

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{QUOTE}shortly after the Maya capitulated (I let them keep one worthless city just to give me the happiness bonus for having a vassal).{/QUOTE}
Heh, I did that as well and as a result their former capital seemed to be in a constant state of revolt. Listed % chance for revolt: 6. Actual % in my game: 75. I will not take a vassal in my next few games.[/disgusted]