Actually, Aku's settings on a very small, crowded wrap-around map with a lot of players would be darn fun. Something like 10+ players on a 100 province map. Now, THAT would be a true slugfest.
This new map Chandrea2 (from Chazar) is interesting. My son and I just started a 2v2 on it so I will see how good it works. There is a lot of water, though, and would require a water race (or 2). It is a wrap-around map with just over 100 provinces. Also, it is twice as tall as wide so no one really gets the disadvantage of being in the middle or the advantage of being in a corner. Perfect slugfest material, in other words. I would even switch to R'lyeh for this purpose.
I have become a huge fan of the three Zen mods. They seem quite balanced to me, except for his inexplicable failure to nerf Ghost Riders.
As for the infantry balance mods, there is a test game fixing to soon be started to check those out. It is probably too early to try those as yet.