Well, unless they are used to roleplaying, don't expect them to. To start make their country names like their real names (John->Johnsvile), and have some kind of set economic rules so they won't think you favor one over the other instead of the more "soft" economics we have here; they probably won't do much in the way of "send X to infrastructure" or "build lots of new farms on the frontier", but if they do, make it a project seperate from the boardgaming style map.
For troops, techs, actual economics and such, my actual rules are still in flux. This is the 4th or 5th incarnation, a sorta "Return to your roots" style because I am doing the same as the original, with compexity completely optional. (if you hate techs, avoid them, your standard units will upgrade slowly and eventually and your extra income might be useful, likee that).
Anyway, I use gridpaper. Every 4 squares is 1 gpt. Every full province of 4-10 squares is 1gpt. Every provinces allows a city for 15 gold to get a further 3gpt.
All basic techs and unit designs are 5g.
All basic units are 1g for 1 footmen troop, 2g for 1 group of rafts.
EDIT: Unless you expecting world war soon, put lots of NPCs for them to fight/deal/get experience on before they hit each other.
Right now I'm on update 7. A few more highlights: The Sunelves summoned Typhon, a titan/wind elemental thing, to fight an island nation who is killing the pirates of the Sea Elves.
Duergar are summoning a demon to fight the gnome slaves who rebelled to take advantage of their disunity.
Dragons rampage.
ONe player rolled high on damage and low on control for an explosive experiment, so there are chunks of an island in the atmosphere which will fall down next turn.
