[quote=@TheSovereignGrave]
I'd have to third the Bronze/Iron Age for the endpoint of the first "evolution". No particular opinion for the geography issue though; I'm cool with either. That map does look a tad large though, at least in my opinion. 
[/quote]

Bronze/Iron (or let's call it Ancient?) era it is. I think that's the general vibe I'm getting. 

But Sovereign raises a good point about the map's size. Obviously, a real world is comprised of hundreds of countries and empires - where as we'll be lucky to get 4-6. 

So naturally, if we all went with a nation as large as modern day France, there's probably going to be thousands of miles between us and interaction is going to suffer as a result. 

Brainstorming a few ideas, I've got the following:

1) I change the world map for a regional map, which will lock us into an area roughly the size of Europe. 

2) We aim big, and everyone grabs themselves a huge ass Empire. 

3) We all start in the same kind of area (our version of Europe?), and branch outwards from there? Guess that'll make for some great colonial adventures.

Anyone want to throw some logs on this fire?