Has anyone tried...

[Ninot]

Has anyone tried a small map, 18 civs?

i did. It was quite funny. About 10 civs were able to put down cities, and then the rest just wandered around, because they could not establish a city as most of the land was already taken up.

Didn't play it out. Thought it would be too lame.

[Shogun Gunner]

I did something like that with a civ3 conquests game when we got all the new civs.

I did play it out -- had some interesting moments. Lots of captured workers in the begining.

[Adagio]

I haven't tried it in Civ IV yet, but I've played quite a few games with such settings in Civ III... there was enough room for every Civ to get a city built though