Well I have finally started to join the club and start a NES. I'm thinking of starting a settlers NES, although not with Northern/Southern America. You would represent a Noble House trying to claim your own share of the land. Europe would be as it is 1500's. You could join as Portugal, Spain, England,France,Denmark,Sweden,Norway or one of the Italian city states. Stats would be things Like Manpower, Money, Army/Navy Qualitly/Quantity, Centrilization, cities, relations with your king and so forth.
As another intresting Mechanic would be "Kings land". All of the countries to a greater or lesser extent will claim part of the America's for the crown. Then your houses could trasnverse the lands of your king or even extend it for better relationships.
As for war, anything goes from poatching from a rival to instigating a full out war between two countries. Of course when the King does to war he expects you to go with him. YOu could refuse him and risk his Ire of course or join him and take some land of your own. In fact a victory for the other country might not mean a loss for you.
Finally Gameplay would be considered more important than realism.
New Stuff: Exploration, a double edged sword. Most of the world shall start black, and as you explore I'll update the map, a la Lines NES. However the new stuff is revealed to everyone.
Edit: Also if anyone would be able to design a America's map, that would be great. Have fun, make several blobs of land and some sort of a carribian on the Easts coast. As an incentive to all you mapmakers out there, whoever provideds the best map will get to chose where we start.