How many points would you need to start in each era? I would like to have enough to populate my cities and fill them with buildings as well as work all the country side, as well as research a tech or two. What amount of points would be good for an industrial start?

That would be a large fortune. Try a bunch of 9's

The intent was to get past the first few turns, not launch into the middle ages. Being able to build to that point yourself is kind of important.

Actually, I think the intent WAS that you could choose a favourite era. I like a slow, marathon-speed game, plus I get tired of the world Im playing easily so I like to start another one, so the early ages can get pretty repetitive.
And if you examine the BTS box, you'll see that it does feature the ability to start in any era.

Check and mate.

Yeah, you can start in any era. But even if you start in the medieval era, for example, you are going to need a heap of starting points to do what you envisage! Might as well just go into the world builder and customise things how you want for your ultimate experience....:mischief:

Seems easy enough to test out.
Give yourself max points, start a game, build all the things you want, figure out how many points that takes.
Start a new game, set point value to what you used in the test.:goodjob: