What kind of difficulty would you guys be comfortable at? Getting a good challenge is key to learning fast I think, during the discussion with PP the Sid-SG we played (and lost) got a mention as well and it was loads of fun plus I think a good learning experience.
Since imo civ4 difficulty levels are much more difficult than civ3's, I'd like to suggest playing emperor and see how far we can get, though I do not know what kind of level you people would prefer. Immortal is possible too though the chance we'd lose is a lot higher, with random conditions.
My own favourite conditions would be large map/continents/7 opponents, but will go along with the wishes of the majority of course.
Looking forward to playing a SG again.