I'm also interested in that succession game, and, like you, I've been following civfanatics while waiting for the patch. The wait is getting pretty annoying, actually.
As for starting off the game I'm also away from my computer for the rest of the weekend, so I won't be able get it started.
As for difficulty, I've actually been finding BTS to be slightly harder than vanilla, but between Prince and Noble it doesn't make a whole lot of difference to me. Regarding map type, I generally don't like dealing with a navy, so I usually choose either Pangaea, or 2 continents if I want to split off the Civs in two groups. Standard speed and normal map size sounds good to me, especially if there's someone with a PC with lower specs.
Is ten turns per player a good amount of turns?
Finally, I think we should wait to have at least five different players before starting the game.
People who want to join in should start posting.........
NOW!