Just wondering about this since a friend introduced me to the Conceptual Balance Mod. The power differentials between nations have made me wonder how fair things are. Of course I understand that CBM is yet another set of rules and spells to learn.
I'm not sure exactly what you mean by casual games, blitz games are abut as casual as it gets and they are most likely to CBM. As for newbie games, I'm not sure if they were explicitly labeled as such, but I have sen CB games start with lots of new players.