I usually play 1vs1 games but with the new possibility of simultaneous turns the free for all multiplayer games do not take so much time and are refreshing and fun to play.
I am thinking about 8 player big map game, such as Europe map.
I got only one insight for now and that is to avoid razing, at least in your own hoods and borders. When playing for the win, having razed cities in your homeland is just not the way to go. Better risk losing a city and hope to get it back later. When there is a lot of razing both neighbors are unlikely to win.
In 1vs1 games I like to expand really fast but it seems that will get you killed in 8 player FFA. How do you people balance early expansion and what about mid game and end game?
End game must be a lot about diplomacy I would think, everyone should try to make sure one player cannot run away to win and alliance/peace/war should change according to power balance. I quess one strategy would be to appear weaker than you are in the end game and wait for a moment to rush. I have never got that far though. Long peace agreements should be avoided by the weaker player, as the stronger one could manage run away before it expires.
A side note about peace agreements; I don't like it at all that you can go to the other guy's territory and just wait for the turn when peace ends attack all around. That is not the idea of the deal. Also, this hugely favours the one who acts first to the effect that I think the player last to act should never sign a peace deal but have a mutual understanding instead and agree on some sort of borders.