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Firstly, let me say that this was a knee jerk reaction game. I pm'd Sullla with a game design where you had to keep at least 1000g in your bank. If you fell below 1000g limit, you had to run 0% science until you had 1500g (the extra 500g as a penalty). Sullla responded that he had just got an email from Sooooo with almost the same idea (Adventure 40). Sooooo's idea was much better than mine so he ran with his idea with almost zero input from me. That left me with the feeling of wanting to suggest a game, but no game to suggest. Thus the forbidden (or missing) traits idea was born, Adventure 41 - Forbidden Fruits.
The Philosophical / Industrious leader was the only one that I know that Firaxis had 'outlawed'. I think Sullla mentioned that this was a combination in a beta release until someone was discussing a game they were playtesting where they got over 25 Great People. Obviously, the combination of quick wonders and fast great people is over-powered. The only question I had to answer was which leader to give these traits too. Gandhi of India was a pretty easy selection - mainly because what better way to get a quick head start on the wonder whore game that Ind / Philo promised than by providing workers that can chop forests in 3 turns (other workers take 4 turns, 1 to move, 3 to chop).
The other two combinations were (to the best of my knowledge) not strictly forbidden by Firaxis, just that they ran out of leaders. The Creative / Charismatic leader was the most difficult for me to select and I finally went with an Arab leader as I like their Unique Building (Madrassa, library replacement that allows Priests and Scientists to be hired).
The final combination of Organized / Protective was an easy leader selection. Protective gives quick walls and castles. Organized gives quick courthouses. Castles give +25% Espionage points and Courthouses are the first building that generates Espionage points (sans Palace). Combine that with the Citadel that gives +5XPs to siege and you have a game that is build for espionage and war ... or war and espionage, if you like. I was planning on playing my Adv40 (no science) game as an EP focused game, so I just swapped that focus to Isabella under Adv41. I plan to play the whole game and build no science multiplier buildings at all ... zero ... nil. I actually failed this but for an ok reason (see later).
The opponents were designed to help with my Isabella game plan. Monty as the human's first target and designed to keep the player honest regarding defenses. Mansa as an early trading partner with Catherine and Elizabeth to provide late game challenges. Louis XIV was there to provide some wonder competition while Zara Yaqob was there because he always annoys me in games and so he should prove useful in annoying the player.
The map presented was the second map that I generated. I liked it because it squashed Zara (early target opportunities), put the player on a nice little block of very defensible land, gave Catherine tons of room to expand. I swapped the starting positions of Monty and Louis so that the player would have to really worry about military at the beginning and I wanted Louis free to chase land and wonders if he was able. Originally, the land where Monty was in the game was accessible via galley but not land connected to the player. I linked them up. I also tweaked Mansa's start with the duel grassland gems so that he would get off to a tech flier.
BTW - the map as generated, pre my slight map edits was circumnavigatable by galley. The only map edits I did for navigation purposes was to include that little 1 tile island so that Elizabeth could escape from her island - she had a 'Lonely Hearts Club' start.
PS1: I just re-read my game introduction. My attention to detail when writing that up was atrocious - I think I mixed up my tenses at least 3 times. I fully expect T-Hawk or Sooooo (wait, aren't they the same person?) to have some comments for me about that.
PS2: This game was mentioned at a new blog style Civ4 site, fastmoves.