To reach a tech rate comparable to the first game, the teams here need to reach about 3 times the bpt of the teching civs with the slider set to 100%. That just ain't going to happen, so the tech rate is going to be significantly slower here, especially as teams have to field significant amount of units.
I'd disagree with your assertion that plains would make people tech; I'd claim the exact opposite, because it is so much harder to tech due to lack of food, the window for attacks will be more open, and growing onto the plains is less useful, hence slaving out units to attack with is prefered because hte cities will be kept small, ie max pop size would be 6.
As it is the grass means that multiple options are possible for cities, and due to the proximity of the teams to each other, spamming cottage cities is most likely going to result in fast death. They are going to need armies, and navies, to hold onto every scrap of land they settle, otherwise quick strikes such as what Banana did against PAL are not only viable but expected, as soon as a couple of galleys have been built.
I'd disagree with your assertion that plains would make people tech; I'd claim the exact opposite, because it is so much harder to tech due to lack of food, the window for attacks will be more open, and growing onto the plains is less useful, hence slaving out units to attack with is prefered because hte cities will be kept small, ie max pop size would be 6.
As it is the grass means that multiple options are possible for cities, and due to the proximity of the teams to each other, spamming cottage cities is most likely going to result in fast death. They are going to need armies, and navies, to hold onto every scrap of land they settle, otherwise quick strikes such as what Banana did against PAL are not only viable but expected, as soon as a couple of galleys have been built.