Okay, as I promised the first thing I would do was to mod the Dutch in, I did do just that. I copied the original files and edited the appropriate info for Mali/Mansa Musa in the following files from the Assets\XML tree:

Civilizations\CIV4CivilizationInfos.xml
Civilizations\CIV4LeaderHeadInfos.xml
Text\CIV4GameTextInfos_Cities.xml
Text\CIV4GameTextInfos_Objects.xml
Text\CIV4GameText_Civilopedia_CivLeaders.xml
Text\CIV4GameText_Civilopedia_Units.xml

Then make in the Mods subdirectory a subdirectory 'Dutch' without the quotes and create there a subdirectory 'Assets' without the quotes and in that subdirectory another subdirectory 'XML' without the quotes.
Put the files above in there and add all missing .xml files to the XML subdirectory and to the 'Civilizations' and 'Text' subdirectories (without that the mod won't load properly I noticed).
After starting up Civ4 then I go to 'Advanced' and 'Load a mod' and after the game restarts I can start a game with the Dutch Empire!
I've changed such things as starting techs, favorite civic, city names, civ color (orange!), civilopedia text entries for the Dutch and their leader William of Orange, and leader traits. That's not all there is to do of course, but it's a good start and I wanted a proof of concept :)

It's much more difficult to actually add a civilization, because you have to be sure to take care of all the dependencies between the numerous files. And maybe there's a hard limit on the number of civilizations somewhere.

Edit: added 'XML' subdirectory to description.

Why The Netherlands wasn't included in the first place, as opposed to some that were is beyond me. After brittain, few countries have shaped the modern world as much as the Netherlands. the influence from the colonial days is still felt today, especially in the way how it was the first with modern democracy, freedoms we take for granted, and ofcourse capitalism (it's considered to have been the first true capitalist country).

have you considered the V.O.C (or W.I.C aswell) as seperate civs? after all, they were given pretty much the authority to act on their own accord in regards to natives.

aaah, the Dutch, well they were (still are a little) a great civ at the 'New World' era, but there are bigger civs then them, so firaxis had to made a choice, so the Dutch weren't included. GJ on modding them in though, I'm planning to create the Belgians (not so great, but I live in Belgium, so I would like to play with them xD) when I get the game (I think the release is friday, right??).

happy civving

Why The Netherlands wasn't included in the first place, as opposed to some that were is beyond me. After brittain, few countries have shaped the modern world as much as the Netherlands. the influence from the colonial days is still felt today, especially in the way how it was the first with modern democracy, freedoms we take for granted, and ofcourse capitalism (it's considered to have been the first true capitalist country).

have you considered the V.O.C (or W.I.C aswell) as seperate civs? after all, they were given pretty much the authority to act on their own accord in regards to natives.
I made a strong case for the Dutch before the game was released (the Dutch golden age really was a Golden Age in capitals in the 17th century), but to no avail. Well, I can live with that; Firaxis can never please everybody and now I learned something so I'm not complaining.
I know the VOC were pretty powerful back then; they even got 'kapersbrieven', which IIRC basically meant they could just rob the Spaniards with approval of the authorities :eek:
So I would certainly think about making a VOC mod somewhere down the road but I'll have to build up some more experience first with all the modding possibilities (maps, units, victory conditions etc.)

Why The Netherlands wasn't included in the first place, as opposed to some that were is beyond me.

It's so they could add it in the expansion. It seems like a lot of things were left out.

do you have leaderheads?

do you have leaderheads?
No art changed, so no custom leaderhead. You can probably pick any existing leaderhead for a mod, but creating a new one, hmmm that sounds very difficult.

I think in the IRC chat or in an interview someone said they used something called Studio Max for the leaderheads. I don't know it. OK, I just looked it up and it's probably 3D Studio Max which is some professional graphical program, but I think I'll skip that.
I'll start with something 'easy' first, like a flag. That shouldn't be too hard to change.

aaah, the Dutch, well they were (still are a little) a great civ at the 'New World' era, but there are bigger civs then them, so firaxis had to made a choice, so the Dutch weren't included.
happy civving

are you kidding? the dutch empire at it's height was much bigger than half the civs in the game! it's also had a more profound impact on world history than half of the civs in the game being as it was the first modern republic and capitalist nation, to not include them is a severe *severe* oversight.