The issue of games freezing is an annoyance. Currently the population cap for each player is 1600. After some consideration with fellow players, 1200 seems to be the consensus for a new cap. I do not believe this will affect the fairness of the game. In fact it may help counter population hoarders as an added benefit.
I would say about half of the matches I have participated in eventually freeze before they end.

I wholeheartedly disagree with some of that. I was in the same boat as you were Donnie before a recent interest spike brought some good players out of the woodwork and quite a few close matches were played. In a 6+ player match, it is pretty balanced.
What you say may be true to an extent, but with experienced players it hardly ever pans out as you say. NA can be kept in check by SA. SA simply cant attack NA because of lack of manpower but can put up an effective defense with all of those archers(It is possible to counter attack NA if they throw away a bunch of pop attacking SA (but that goes for any of the neighboring regions with slight imbalances)). Africa, if played smartly, can dominate because the players on the outside are usually too busy fighting each other for control of Asia and the Americas (elephants anyone?*). Europe is a toughie being in the middle but has some strong units. Asia, as in the board game, gives you the best units. Aussi... I'll take Aussi any day of the week. China is most definitely the hardest start... Slow units and not much firepower makes it tough for a quick expansion.

All in all I have come to realize it is more balanced than it appears. The thing that people do not seem to understand is that each continent has it's own strategy involved.
The lag and crash issues are more troublesome than any apparent balance issues.
I would vote against a randomizer personally. It is possible to time the king release so that you can choose before players 1 or 2.

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On the population note; I would vote for a hard cap around 1200. Simply because 8 player games do not remain 8 player games for very long. As for the smaller games... they are usually decided quickly.