Yeah, I think your choices of settings are all good.
Another suggestion I might suggest would be to use a version of Parganos I made which has "dead seas", i.e. you can conquer the seas as normal, but they give no income or gems. This is quite good I think as it basically makes it a pure land game, with the seas as strategic obstacles. Completely up to you though of course.
My parganos version is here:
http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/thr...b=5&o=&fpart=1