Sorry for replying to this old thread, but it seems that bumping is fashionable in Rhye's forum, and I like darkedone02's suggestion a lot.
Basically, I'd love to see the tech tree extended further back in the stone age. This is roughly how it could be done: we start without settlers in the "nomadic hunter-gatherers" age with something like the Mongol camp from the Genghis Khan scenario. We can settle down only when we acquire a specific tech that allows the production of settlers. After settling down, we take control of the appropriate civilization depending on time and location. For instance we cannot settle down as Mongolia before the late twelfth century. How does this sound? How difficult would that be to implement?
If we did that, the "hunter-gatherers" of the proto-Dutch and proto-Turks would be killed off while they wander the high density areas of the urban world, trying to colonize their historical area. Or, if you take over the appropriate civ's spawn area, you may never be able to play as the Dutch or the Portuguese, since you would never get there - never mind England or Japan (boats are too primitive).