@Cyc: thank you for your thorough response. Now i think i understand the message. It seems to me that you like to play the game in a sort of "SimCiv" style. That is, building an utopian civilization that stands above all the others in every aspect of human excellence.
Well, i've been doing exactly that in my early times, but at some point i just gave up and turned into a sort of Attila the Hun on steroids. Why? At some point, i just found Civ3 too simple, too dumbed down to give a satisfacting experience in playing the role of the enlightened ruler. It fares much better as a war game.
And mind, a military victory
per se is almost a no-brainer. As it's been said countless times, the AS are simply too stupid to stand against the mind of a human player, even with high initial advantages. But trying to win
as early as possible, that changes the picture completely! You need deep forethought, detailed strategic planning and you must be ready to change the course of action if something does not end up as you predicted.
This, in my opinion, makes the game far more exciting and interesting than a peaceful builder style could ever be. But once again, we're in the field of personal preferences.
Finally, a few words on this:
I just get tired of hearing people say they can master they game when the only play on tiny (ok, you think they're Standard...) maps filled with water. That takes about 10 minutes. I'd rather read a book than send out suicide Galleys. There I go again. You're right and we are good.
Please note that in every past, present and probably future game community there is a certain number of noobs who pretend to be pros. I think you'd better take it as an unavoidable annoyance, such as mosquitoes or taxes, and live with it
I call it 'standard map' simply because it's how it is defined in the game. It's not a definition based on merit. Now, is it standard for warfare? Sure it is. Is it standard as a decent simulation of a world? Hell no, but the same can be said for a huge map. Even the biggest map possible, in this aspect, would have to be considered tiny.
Last thing: for my past memories, my impression is that in a large of huge map the AS does not fare better than in a standard one, it does not pose a harder challenge, it is not more difficult to beat, unless you find yourself in a very bad start position where you have little space to expand and have to face AS that are, say, 10 times the size of your empire. But it's years that i do not play a huge map, so i can as well be wrong on this.