Finally getting around to my in-depth analysis.
Civs
Amazons - Cyrus (Cha/Imp, Agriculture/Hunting)
CDZ - Ragnar (Fin/Agg, Fishing/Hunting)
Mavericks - Gandhi (Spi/Phi, Mysticism/Mining)
Merlot - Pacal (Fin/Exp, Mysticism/Mining)
Quatronia - Hannibal (Fin/Cha, Fishing/Mining)
Sirius - Willem (Fin/Cre, Fishing/Agriculture)
Trait analysis
Financial - 4
Charismatic - 2
Aggressive - 1
Creative - 1
Expansive - 1
Imperialistic - 1
Philosophical - 1
Spiritual - 1
Industrious - 0
Organized - 0
Protective - 0
So, four civs share the Financial trait - no surprises there. The two teams that got left out (Mavericks and Amazons) will have a slightly harder time keeping up with the rest of us in tech, although alliances will no doubt balance that out somewhat. Two teams are Charismatic (Amazons and Quatronia), so they'll have slightly more promoted units and larger cities. They could potentially be looking for early wars to make use of their bonus on promotions.
One team is Aggressive (CDZ), so they'll be more likely to be trying to go to war early on to make as much use of their trait as possible. Our team is the only Creative one, so nobody else will be able to compete with our early-game border pops, not to mention our cheap Libraries, which is nice. Only one team is Expansive (Merlot), so they'll be the only ones getting the benefits of the faster Workers and cheaper Granaries. One team is Imperialistic (Amazons), so they'll be building Settlers faster than anyone else, not to mention being more inclined to war early for those bonus Great General points. Mavericks were the only team that picked two completely unique traits - Spiritual and Philosophical. So they alone will be able to switch civics back and forth quickly in wartime and peacetime, and will be churning out great people at a quicker rate than the rest of us.
Tech analysis
Fishing - 3
Mining - 3
Agriculture - 2
Hunting - 2
Mysticism - 2
The Wheel - 0
Half of the teams started with Fishing (CDZ, Quatronia, and us), so assuming that all the starts are fairly similar (coastal with seafood), these teams may get a slight advantage early on compared to the other three (Amazons, Mavericks, Merlot). Half started with Mining (Mavericks, Merlot, Quatronia), so assuming the other starts are similar (with Gold/Silver/Gems), these teams will have an added incentive for building a Worker ASAP. Interestingly, assuming all the starts are similar to ours, Quatronia will be in the best position to utilize their tiles, being the only ones to start with both Fishing and Mining.
Two teams start with Agriculture (Amazons and us), so we'll both be able to build farms and research Animal Husbandry from the start. Two teams start with Hunting (Amazons and CDZ), so they'll have Scouts while the rest of us will have Warriors. Starting with a Warrior is actually much better in this game, because Scouts are much less useful with huts turned off. Three teams lack both Agriculture and Hunting (Mavericks, Merlot, and Quatronia), putting them a long way from Animal Husbandry and even further from Chariots. Two teams start with Mysticism (Mavericks and Merlot), so it'll likely be one of those two who founds Buddhism and/or Hinduism.
Interestingly, no-one started with The Wheel, meaning that nobody will be able to build roads from the start, nor will anyone be a single tech from Chariots. This is good to know.
Unique Units/Buildings
Amazons: Immortal/Grocer - Obviously we can all see the imminent threat here, especially with their trait combination. We'll have to watch out for these guys if we start nearby them.
CDZ: Beserker/Trading Post - If this turns out to be an islands or continents type map, this team will certainly be extremely potent at sea. We'll have to keep an eye out for them.
Mavericks: Fast Worker/Mausoleum - Not particularly threatening, but these bonuses will still give them a leg up throughout the game.
Merlot: Holkan/Ball Court - The UU will save them if they start near the Amazons, and the UB is very nice indeed for the huge extra happiness.
Quatronia: Numidian Cavalry/Cothon - Not such a useful UU, but the UB could be okay if this is a map heavy on coast.
Sirius: East Indiaman/Dike - Obviously we all know these come fairly late, but are very useful. If we can hang on until this stage in the game, we should be set.
Rival analysis
Amazons - The team of the slightly dodgey female images. Probably the most well known player on Team Amazon is TheMeInTeam. He's a fairly strong player, and I expect his opinions will hold some weight on their team. He's used to very fast paced games though, so may be a bit out of his comfort zone here. As for some of the other players, most of us who played in the last game will be familiar with Sommerswerd. Let's just say he's an opinionated guy.
Depending on how much influence he has over his team, it's possible it may end up being a bit of an anarchy. If this is the case, they may be slightly less efficient with their empire management, but they will be much more unpredictable (and unreliable) diplomatically. (Anyone who was in the last game knew that Sommerswerd's team were a handful to communicate with!) To sum up: A reasonably skilled but unpredictable team which has picked an extremely military leader; I expect to see them making and breaking many deals and warring early. I would be disinclined to trust them as an ally. Let's hope they're far away from us.
CDZ - They joke around a lot, but don't let that fool you... they're quite experienced with civ. The most vocal member is BCLG100, who is also a pretty decent player. His strategy always seems to tend towards early rushes, and with an Aggressive leader pick I'd suspect this even more. Many of the other members of the team are also highly experienced civvers (such as Matrix and Akots), who are not only good at the game itself but also skilled at diplomacy, so there is no doubt that they will lead a potent team. In essence: A very strong team which may be inclined towards an early rush; the difference between them and the Amazons being that CDZ will probably be more reliable diplomatically. If they start next to us they could be a problem, but providing they're far enough away they could make valuable allies at some point against a third party.
Mavericks - This team has quite a lot of extremely good Civvers. To mention just a few, there's DMOC, Niklas, Obsolete, KingMorgan, and Snaaty. Their leader choice was an interesting one for a democracy game, slightly weak in my opinion but I'm sure they've got a detailed plan to make the most of it. DMOC and I were on the same team in the last game, so it's possible we'll be on more amicable terms when we first meet; but then again Niklas was on the arch-rival team in the last game. So I'm not quite sure what to make of the Mavericks, on the whole. Potentially they could be good allies if we strike the right tone, but they could also be formiddable enemies should they decide to work against us. I think it all depends on when we meet them: knowing DMOC and Niklas, they will probably push for an alliance with the first team they meet, so let's hope that either we're right next to them or as far away as possible.
Merlot - A slightly unusual team, structured so that one player is always dictating the moves each turn (perhaps with slight influence from the sidelines). In a way this makes them quite a formiddable opponent if they pick a strong player to lead them, which they have done with their initial pick of Indiansmoke. There are also other strong players on the sidelines that they could pick in future, such as Donovan Zoi and slaze. Because one player calls all the shots, if they know what they're doing then they can micromanage and run a very efficient civ indeed. When it comes to diplomacy, I'm not sure how they'll structure things, but presumably the current leader will have the majority of the say on how relations with other teams progress. This could make them quite a good ally if the right person is consistently leading the team, but could also make them quite unreliable as allies if their leadership (and thus their opinions regarding diplomatic relations) are changing rapidly. I think we'll have to adopt a "wait and see" approach with this team.
Quatronia - The smallest team, but not without their share of good players (Earthling and RegentMan, for instance). Because of their small team size, the more experienced players may actually have more influence, meaning they may actually run quite a decent civ. The wildcard here is probably how active Provolution is on the team, as that will probably influence their foreign policy a lot. In my experience he's a bit of a weird and unpredictable guy. He seems to like to role play a lot: he has a large number of very strong opinions, and likes to throw his weight around in diplomacy, but doesn't actually seem to care much for the fundamentals of micromanaging a civ well in-game. In essence, he's mostly talk and not much else. However, if we get on his bad side we could make an enemy for life, so we'll have to be careful. To sum up: again, I'll have to wait and see with this team, but depending on who's calling the shots they could potentially make decent allies. The one thing I'm worried about is whether they might implode due to their very low membership.
Now obviously the above are just my opinions, and some people may disagree with me (and maybe I'll be proved wrong on some things). But if my opinions provoke discussion, so much the better. If you have any criticisms or comments to add to my analysis, feel free to do so.
