My pref:
[SIZE="5"]TRAITS[/SIZE]
[SIZE="4"]Financial[/SIZE] - clearly the best trait for this setting (9 teams, no tech trading, normal game). It would be a shame if we can't get it. This single trait is so important that the second trait is ... secondary
My pick order:
[SIZE="4"]Huayna Capac[/SIZE] -
Industrious - very good here. I know I value him higher than most of you, but I have my reasons. Some early wonders are so gamebreaking that I would choose Huayna above Pacal or Willem.
Great Lighthouse - it has no multiplier so +50% from Industrius trait can seal it for us, and if we have coastal start, it could give us the game. It's worth to mention, that Great Merchant from it could bulb Civil Service.
Stonehange - makes creative trait laughable, not to mention it gives us fast Great Prophet.
Pyramids - I know we probably don't want it without a stone, but it's good to have an option to chase it even without it if we realy have to. And with stone it becomes an easy choice.
Great Wall - It depends on the settings, but if we have raging barbs, I would take it for sure, and then we can spawn Great Spy and make Sommerswerd think twice about espionage in future games.
There are many others Wonders, which we definitly wanted to have such as Oracle, Great Library or Mousoleum of Maussollos, and Industrius will help us with that.
Apart from World Wonders Industrius speed up National Wonders too. What's not to love in early Moai, Heroic, or National Epic, or Oxford if we are at it
But it's not all Industrious can gives us, the big factor are cheap forges too. With forges costed 60 hammers, we can spam it almost everywhere. +25% hammers is huge at the begining. Every chop or pop whip gives us 37 hammers instead of 30 (with Organized Religion it's 45). Not only we could speed up production, but we could whip buildings we otherwise could't. Like double whiping something istead of waiting to triple whip it later.
Oh, and forges gives us happiness too
Taking into acount that happiness is the main limiting factor at the start and gold, gems, and silver are apart from fur (ice and tundra only) and ivory (doubt that anyone have it) the only early happiness resources, we could easly say that forges double almost all the happiness we can have at the beggining of the game.
To sum it up, Industrius trait can help us during the entire game, and it will help us at the moments we need the help at most. Like when chasing the Wonders. The help here is not the difference between having someting now or having it later, but the difference between having it now or not having it at all. Oh and it's the most fun trait too
Imagine the amusment factor of runing financial, Great Lighthouse, Colossus civ.
[SIZE="4"]Elizabeth[/SIZE] -
Philosophical - very good. I think we can quite leverage early GPs. Very early Academy come to my mind or Civil Service Great Marchant bulb. Not to mention quick Oxford thanks to cheap Universities.
[SIZE="4"]Ragnar[/SIZE] -
Aggressive - Good trait too. Apart from it's name it helps most at defence not at offence. It's easy to defend with highly promoted one-move troops. But if we can pair it with Romans we have power to swing the early game to our favor, or with Zulus and we can have the most versatile and highly mobile early unit, with which we can harass, scout, defend harassment, or raze back cities at leisure.
[SIZE="4"]Pacal[/SIZE] -
Expansive - cheap granaries are very good, cheaper workers are good too but if we don't have 4 hammers at the start (plain hill start and 2 hammers tile or normal start and forested plain hill) we lost much of it. +2 health and cheap Harbours are nice to have but nothing gamebraking. If we could pair Pacal with Inca, it would be clearly the best bet, but I doubt it would happend
The worst part of Expansive is that it diminish quickly as the game last, and by the mid game it's just meh... This is not a quick game with 2 cities elimination, and probably will last up to Renesance or higher, in which case expansive is just plain weak.
[SIZE="4"]Willem van Oranje[/SIZE] -
Creative - +2 culture at the start is huge. It could be my first bet if there was no Stonhange. This little early wonder (120 hammers) makes its owner almost creative itself. That's why I value Huayna Capac higher here. Cheap libraries are nice too but not so much that cheap forges. The same as with Pacal, it's powers diminish very quickly.
[SIZE="4"]Hannibal[/SIZE] -
Charismatic - Nice trait. + 2 happiness is the most appealing part of it.
[SIZE="4"]Darius[/SIZE] -
Organized - If it would be emperor difficulty or higher, it would be my first bet, but here it's just 7th. -50% civ upkeep at prince difficulty aren't much but cheap lighthouses, courthouses and factories are good by itself.
[SIZE="4"]Mansa Musa[/SIZE] -
Spiritual - I think most of you value him higher that he deserved. If we would play with RB mod, yeap it would be much higher, but it's vanila BTS. I agree that rapid civics changes are good, but at the start, we have only few to choose from, and later we have Golden Ages to do that. Yeap it requires better planning, but planning is what we are good at
After the change of Golden Ages Spiritual drasticly slides down on my wish list.
[SIZE="5"]CIVILIZATIONS[/SIZE]
It greatly depends on our leader choice, but I list them just to remember our options.
[SIZE="4"]Inca[/SIZE] - yeap Terraces are overpower.
[SIZE="4"]Byzantine[/SIZE] - Cataphracts are overpower too
[SIZE="4"]Zulus[/SIZE] - I thing most of you undervalue the power of Impis. They are probably the most versatile unit in the entire game. They can choke our oponents early, they are the best scouts, the are ultimate pilagers, they are the best harassing unit, able to raze lightly defended back cities, they are the best pilager slayers, and the best defence against Horse Archers. All of this in one early unit. But if we realy want to go that way we definitely need Ragnar as our leader.
[SIZE="4"]Rome[/SIZE] - If we can pair it with Ragnar, we would demolish the early game. It's insurance policy and a big club in one. I doubt anyone would be interested in waring with us. And Rome has 2 best techs to start with.
[SIZE="4"]England[/SIZE] - draftable Redcoats are power to fear off, especialy if they are aggressive too. The same as Rome as of starting techs.
[SIZE="4"]India[/SIZE] - I value it much lower than most of you. If it would be a quick speed game I agree it's clearly number 1, but on normal speed it's just ok, and on epic it's just weak.
[SIZE="4"]Mali[/SIZE] - Skirmishers are like an insurance policy, but we need to discover archery ASAP, which is not on the list of much needed techs early.
I'm definitely a fan of Huayna Capac. 
