Thank you for all the suggestions people.
Here are the parameters I have decided upon.
map = Terra (Similiar to our Earth, with players Starting in the Old world. The New World when found will obviously be covered in barbarians

)
size = Large (Usually this would be a 10 player map I'm thinking 12-15 to encourage some conflict for resources)
Technology = No Brokering (You may only trade technology that you have developed yourself)
No Random events (As the Barbarian uprisings can wipe a player out very early without a chance)
Civilization+ Leader choice = RANDOM (This forces players to play to the strengths of the Civ they are dealt. I was given Mongols in our last game and went on a bit of a nasty romp!)
I have opened this game up to the people from my local gaming community so it will be newbie heavy.
If there is enough interest from them I may even run two games.
I'm putting this off till late Nov to sort this out. I'm also teaching myself how to eliminate the units and civs (and map reveals) off a saved map in worldbuilder.