I'm playing a game of the Known World 901 variant. You can see the variant map here. The thread for the match is here.
WOW that is an epic map/game. I wish I could be part of that. It seems great; I don't really know what the China/Denmark players are thinking though, but then again I'm not privy to the diplo going on.
Apparently, China/Srivijaya is supposed to be a super-strong alliance, & was very effective in the last game played of that variant. Now that people know about it, I'm interested to see if it will be effective enough to warrant its reputation.