What is your favorite multiplayer scenario to play with a friend?

Heya there.

I've played a few multiplayer LAN games with both my brother and or my friend.

Usually we set a few ground rules before we start.

Examples of games we've played:
Duel against each other (Which is somewhat unfair because I'm use to playing at a higher difficulty).
Large map, can't attack each other and who is faster to win any victory condition.
Space race.
Two of us in a team against 3-4 computers in another team.
1 city challenge.
Max 8 cities, any victory condition on a small map. Race who wins first.

We're going to be playing tonight and any ideas for games, victory conditions ect. would be appreciated.

What is your favorite multiplayer scenario to play with a friend?

I like to play 2v2v2v2 with a friend of mine in the same team - rest A.I.
Most settings on either random or standard(speed, size, resources). We like either continents with low sea level or pangaea with a high sea level - we think those are the most balanced maps (fractal is a bit too random but also nice).

We also play with policy saving active. In some games we start off with combat animations and turn them off when they become too disruptive (usually when the first aeroplanes attack).
All victory conditions are enabled.

Because A.I. doesnt seem to consider teammates when making some decisions we have a rule that when we make peace after warring we (and by that I mean the person who was the most active in the war) only negotiate with the AI-teammember that offers the least.