Slowly starting to get the hang of playing the brits so I think I can now post a replay of me playing as them without looking like a total noob.
I age up early (maybe too early) expecting the usual early pressure that most civs like to try on the brits, and manage to fend of his early musketeer push with just longbow and then musket shipments. As he didn't seem to be attacking much, i suspected he was going to quickly fortress and get lancers and sure enough thats what he did.
I hurry to fortress a couple minutes behind him and ship Jaegers then highlanders and build dragoons. Running out of gold i caught a bit of bad luck as his lancers spot my explorer on his way to build a tc and kill him, but i ransom him back and go back and still build it ^_^
From there on in despite the fact that I forgot to queue villagers for a lot of the game my economy still took off, but he already had an offensive fort near my base, tons of lancers and skirms and a few cannons AND he started to boom...
not a well played game by me, but i'm still learning the brits so cut me some slack ;)
Additional Comments: I knew he was going to pinch you in next to the lake. But you recovered well and once you broke through his first and only line it was 'stick a fork in me i be done.' fun to watch:)