Housing of Esrael.
There is much to do in this scenario. Who will you be? Togukawa and Genghis Khan, mighty warlords with weak empries ready to fall at their borders. The desperate English who have been cornered and seek for a way to make their empire grow. The undeveloped Russias who have a big island almost at their disposal. The superior Egyptians, who have the most developed empire and greatest riches, as well as the commander Ramzes (war chariot with many upgrades), but not much of an army. The Incans who, undisturbed, have developed into a great empire and now face the Arabs, their great neighboors who control the other half of their continent. The Romans with the perfected and well-established empire, yet untouched by war. The Americans who have been forced to start a sea empire, ejected from their lands.
Game style: Aggressive AI and conquest only, the way I like it (other ways of winning don't really make sense to me).
Technology: Should be around the renessaince era. Technology exchange being forbidden and the game set to 'marathon' should keep things from getting too modern for a while, hopefully.
Players: 18 nations (all different nations, no double leaders).
Map size: Giant (notice you need GOOD computer to run this, it's bigger than huge, the biggest map size normally).