my preferred setting would be: server/unit speed 3, conquest, alliance cap 50, don't care about morale.
speed 2 is ok, but speed 3, although requires more activity, allows you to rebuild faster so you have more action in a certain time period than on speed 2 world
conquest because whatever revolt worlds i tried i keep seeing same sh*t all over again, like stackers and simers, which are an issue in conquest based worlds, but not as much as in revolt ones. this setting also requires teamwork in both attacking and defending at the same time and can use offense based units to save a city of yours, not just defense based ones
alliance cap 50. you don't need more because people keep joining and quitting so you end up with even less than 50 people doing something for an alliance. if you want to pull some diplomatic strings, then mass recruiting for chart position purpose and specially WW construction is ruined by setting such as alliance cap of 100+. i've seen it in corinth, and that was just disgusting. winning alliance devoured every alliance out there against us and won 7/7 in WW without a problem. setting was set at 500 :/
morale. as much as we hate it, and i'll join that club, doesn't affect the server in later stages. big players stomping on little ones is something morale turned on prevents. find someone your, or greater size. i played in athens that had morale turned on. some players ended up not even realizing that, which leads to me not caring about this setting