In 355BC, Tokugawa completed the Pyramids and changed to representation. I don't know if that was the reason, but Tokugawa really amazed me in this game: He would not only survive, which isn't all that common in CIV, but he would also prove to be the tech leader nearly the whole game! But I'm getting ahead of myself. My research of Mathematics completed in 205BC, and I went for Currency next. Then, this happened:
Huh, where did that come from? I must have made a misclick when giving build orders earlier, as I had clearly concluded that the Great Lighthouse is a red herring in this scenario... 
No seriously, seeing just how many points that wonder was worth, and how one of my few scouts had stumbled upon the coast relatively early, I just had to try to build this. And voila! 13 points for me. 
Although this has cost me quite a bit (extra city and distance maintenance, a research detour to Sailing and Masonry I otherwise didn't need, and lots of shields not spent on temples, libraries and the like), this wonder was worth more than 6 cathedrals! But I'm still quite sure this had been intended to be a red herring by the sponsor, and I wonder how many people went for it anyway? With 95% certainty, I bet I know at least one other player who will have tried (and succeeded, most probably) to build this: T-hawk. He had tried it in the original Epic, and if I know him well enough, this challenge will prove be too tempting for him... 
But I won't be surprised if other players will try it, too.
Anyway, let's get on with the game. My joy about my success building the Great Lighthouse didn't last long, for only one turn later, Alexander declared war on me.
Argh, I was in the middle of whipping lots of temples and libraries, and didn't want to fight! Luckily, he only sent a very small stack into my territory.
This was most probably a pillaging stack, and it started by pillaging my iron. Uh, iron? Did I have iron? Whoops, I hadn't noticed my borders had expanded enough so that it had fallen under my control! I emergency-whipped some units, got rid of that stack before it could do any real damage, and continued my previous whipping efforts. Alex was ready to make peace again in 95AD, and I received 70 gold as reparations.
Only one turn after Alex had declared war on me, Monty had declared war on Isabella. I only hoped she wouldn't be overrun, because I had special plans for her myself... This war lasted until 350AD, but Monty didn't achieve much. In 155AD, Toku declared war on Frederick, and actually managed to capture some cities before that war ended again in 695AD.
My research efforts were geared towards war myself now, going for Construction next, to get access to catapults. I had two religions, Confucianism and Christianity, which was nice for the 260AD scoring deadline, but wouldn't suffice for the 1502AD deadline. I needed more religions! To win a cultural victory in this game, I needed at least 9 cities anyway (to be able to have a cathedral of every religion in each my three legendary cities), so I planned on conquering some cities with religions I didn't yet have. And, well, fanatical Isabella had the bad luck of starting the game right next to my door...
Because I was busy researching something else, an AI got Alphabet before me, which rarely happens. Hatty had it in 185AD (very early for an AI!), and so I took the chance to trade a bit.
Theology would later also yield me Monarchy and 810 gold from different AIs, greatly helping my research efforts, so that great prophet was really well spent!
Time went by quickly, and the 260AD scoring deadline arrived. Here's my empire at that time:
Score tally: In 260AD, I had 5 libraries and 7 temples, for a total of 12 points. I also had already built the Great Lighthouse for 13 points and the Parthenon for another 7. So let's see how many universities and cathedrals I can get up before 1502AD! 
As you can see in the last screenshot, Boston was building Chichen Itza - a wonder I don't normally build, but which was worth another 2 points in this game, and since I had nothing better to do...
I did not build it in Washington, my best production city, as I didn't want to pollute my future great artist pool with even more non-artist sources of GPP. Research-wise, I went for Alphabet, Drama, then Civil Service next, all while building up for war. In 590AD, Alex declared on Isabella, the second time she got declared on by an AI, and two turns later Monty declared on Frederick (another second-time victim). In 785AD, I feared that Alex might capture cities from Isa I wanted to have, so I joined him in the war against her. She had a religion I was interested in: Buddhism!
Weakened from the war against Alex as she was, Toledo fell easily, granting me access to Buddhism. I now had six cities, but needed nine - and here it was when I probably made my first mistake. I decided to press on and take Madrid, figuring that her capital would.be located in a nice spot (I hadn't been able to scout her, since the hidden aggressive AI diplo malus let her refuse to agree to open borders).
Not only were Madrid's lands not very good, I also weakened her considerably by this move. Just a reminder: Every civ that died would yield me four less scenario points! So afterwards, I made peace with her immediately. Unfortunately, Alex continued to fight her, and at some point she only had one city left: Cordoba! I didn't really want to fight Alex right now, and wasn't allowed to gift her any troops, so I gifted her a tech instead to try to help her.
As you can see in the screenshot, Cordoba was only defended by archers. AIs get a huge bonus on upgrading units, so I hoped after gifting Feudalism to her, Alex had to fight longbows next. And it worked!
Well, Isabella lasted until 1190AD. Alex fought on relentlessly, and managed to conquer Cordoba in the end, even though Isabella managed to get to four longbows at one time. Bye bye, 4 scenario points! 
For the loss of these points, I claim full responsibility - I shouldn't have captured Madrid.
Unfortunately, three more civs would die eventually until the end of the game, for another 12 points lost. But in their case, there was nothing I could have done about it - which I find a bit frustrating. For example. the next leader getting destroyed was Frederick, in a third war against him, and in all three wars, all happened too fast and he was too far away for me to do anything realistically.
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