Augustus Caesar has an expansive nation across the northern half of the continent, but my smaller Germany has a slight tech advantage. Being the first to circumnavigate the world, I'm first to make contact with the other continent full of players. The rest of the world has a slight tech advantage over us, but in terms of military technology everyone's equal (except Augustus and Ghengis Khan, who either had a poor start or lost an early war.)
A world war erupts on the other continent as Ghengis Khan declares war on Franklin Roosevelt; Khan must have been pretty popular, because after the war has dragged on a bit and Roosevelt wins some minor victories the top three nations of the other continent all declare war on Roosevelt. Jao II of Portugal- big dog and tech leader of the world- asks me to join in on the dogpile, and happy to boost my relations with most of the continent I agree.
I already boast a solid navy and a decent army, so I put two and two together and ship them across the ocean to do battle with the Americans. A few bad things happen in quick succession:
1- The American Navy is larger than I had anticipated, and while I was able to land the full invasion force on a hill outside Washington DC a huge swarm of Caravels destroy most of my fleet, only a few wounded galleons managing to retreat from the battle. My army is stranded.
2- Mongolia, Portugal, and the Khmer all make peace with Roosevelt within a few turns of the landing. Experienced American troops begin pulling back from the front and pound my stack, slowly whittling it down.
3- Augustus Caesar must have done some wheeling and dealing when I wasn't looking, because he was suddenly the most powerful nation in the world. He declares war on me, with huge stacks of knights and grenadier descending on my underdefended cities while an unsuspected fleet of frigates smashes the remnants of my navy.
My biggest stack of Riflemen is stranded on the other side of the ocean being ground down by waves of macemen and war elephants, and only a few outdated soldiers remain on home soil. Though I manage to upgrade them to Riflemen and furiously draft half a dozen more, they are overrun by the sheer weight of Roman numbers.
I display the leadership abilities of Dan Quayle.