Not 100% accurate, in need of tweaking. Rough draft.
17 civs.
Ancient starts with techs chosen based on location bonuses (usually agriculture and fishing/hunting, some mining). Starts have gems/gold/silver to help get to iron working quickly. Most have strong health resources to deal with heavy jungles.
Mostly marginal terrain with fertile, heavy-bonus river valleys and coasts. Lots of mountains in the north, fairly open in the center and south. Grassland/plains mapping made from real-world soil quality and cereal output maps of the region (with some changes). Heightmap rough but mostly accurate, made from real-world heightmap. Made more of the area non-jungle than is appropriate for playability.
Some starts are significantly better than others.
AI (iirc):
Korea
both Chinas
both Indias
Khmer
Native America
Japan
Darius/Persian
Mali
Saladin/Arabia
Montezuma/Aztec
Pacal/Maya
Zara/Ethiopia
both Mongolias
Huayna/Inca
a few barb islands/cities tossed in on the margins
[UPDATE 1:]
Renamed civs to somewhat historical peoples/kingdoms ("Vietnam" needs to be redone, as it's fairly funny right now); renamed starting cities to historical or modern placenames (roughly). Should be roughly accurate. Based on no specific time period. Switched the starts of two civs, slightly moved around others. Reduced starting location bonuses. All civs start with hunting and a scout now. Added Phuket island.
Zulu are dead, do not play as them. Plan on removing them in a later update.
17 civs.
Ancient starts with techs chosen based on location bonuses (usually agriculture and fishing/hunting, some mining). Starts have gems/gold/silver to help get to iron working quickly. Most have strong health resources to deal with heavy jungles.
Mostly marginal terrain with fertile, heavy-bonus river valleys and coasts. Lots of mountains in the north, fairly open in the center and south. Grassland/plains mapping made from real-world soil quality and cereal output maps of the region (with some changes). Heightmap rough but mostly accurate, made from real-world heightmap. Made more of the area non-jungle than is appropriate for playability.
Some starts are significantly better than others.
AI (iirc):
Korea
both Chinas
both Indias
Khmer
Native America
Japan
Darius/Persian
Mali
Saladin/Arabia
Montezuma/Aztec
Pacal/Maya
Zara/Ethiopia
both Mongolias
Huayna/Inca
a few barb islands/cities tossed in on the margins
[UPDATE 1:]
Renamed civs to somewhat historical peoples/kingdoms ("Vietnam" needs to be redone, as it's fairly funny right now); renamed starting cities to historical or modern placenames (roughly). Should be roughly accurate. Based on no specific time period. Switched the starts of two civs, slightly moved around others. Reduced starting location bonuses. All civs start with hunting and a scout now. Added Phuket island.
Zulu are dead, do not play as them. Plan on removing them in a later update.