FWIW, I've only played until 1120 AD on monarch / normal, so please feel free to take my comments with a pinch of salt.
That said, the game is effectively won at this date - Ragnar will cap, I have a big tech lead and it's now just a question of marching my stack of cuirs on to other targets.
Re: the map. FWIW, I'm not a fan of huge edits unless they're obviously needed for balance but I found the map to be a blast. It's obvious that war is possible given the neighbours and yet marble + stone + IND makes wonders attractive....it's a very interesting dynamic. The RNG will obviously be key avoiding an early DoW (unless the human wants to rush Ragnar) will obviously help wonderspam.
Depending on how the RNG rolls, the map actually provides a great opportunity IMHO to boost diplo skills. To be precise, depending on how religions split, there's a great opportunity here IMHO for the monarch gamer to learn the difference between how friendly they need to be with an AI (a) to avoid being a DoW target and (b) to avoid being bribed against (and perhaps turn that around and bribe AI on other AI). This kind of knowledge can be key to avoid being on the wrong end of an early dogpile and potentially leveraging the isthmus to defend against Boudica. That isthmus in turn adds another layer of interest to the map.
At the risk of labouring the point, IMHO these games are meant to be fun (however a gamer defines fun)...and FWIW I found it a refreshing change to be able to play a map full of challenges and tensions, without necessarily having to raise the difficulty to emperor or immortal to boost the AI for a challenge. The RNG will obviously have a huge bearing on each game but, FWIW, I thought it was one of the best monarch maps I've played. Kudos - and thanks - @Giant Wolfman.
