I think Saros hit it right on the nose. There's certainly nothing wrong with vanilla, but from what I've seen, it tends to point every single player in the same direction for the endgame. There is also a large amount of micro management resulting from massing gem generators. CBM 1.7 would be what I recommend. The endgame diversity mod (EDM) is included in that.
Of course, CBM 1.6 plus EDM would work also. And so would vanilla! Ultimately, the choice is yours, earwicker. I guess the only thing I would add is: I have yet to see a game offered here (newbie or otherwise) that does not use CBM. But then I haven't been around very long.
I think I would enjoy playing in the game no matter what you choose. But the choice of mods (or no mods) would influence my nation pick and pretender design. (Note that you need to have the mods loaded before building your pretender because they affect the cost and composition of some of them.)
Here's the link for CBM 1.7 (which includes the EDM):
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showt...eptual+balance