Any Civilization V players here? Got Gods and Kings yet?

[Joan d'Arc]

Ok first off if you hate Civ V walk away now, you won't find an ally here. I liked IV and played it a lot against a local friend. The V showed up and we haven't really ever felt like going back. V is not better, it is just not IV. V does what it does and I liked it more.

And Gods and Kings has arrived (and my friend didn't tell me, he's got some splaining to do).

Word is it is more about the more and less about religion and spies. The religion is there, but you can't expect to win with it, and spies don't appear to be designed for how I played them in IV (roving improvement wreckers). There are lots more buildings wonders and civs though.

I am hoping to have my copy bought by days end, just not sure if I buy local hard copy for easy install, or go with buy right from Steam (likely cheaper).

[doomtrader]

All five Civs are great games.

I already bought it at Steam, but as an European I must wait till tomorrow.

[Joan d'Arc]

The local retail has it here on the shelf. Planning to add it to my options. I would grab the Steam dl if not for the fact I have some spare funds here and hard copy is an easier install some times. I've watched a few installs from Steam before, not my idea of how to spend an entire afternoon And the physical copy is apparently going to cost me the same as the Steam price (if I assume Steam's price is not taxes added on yet). My price in town, 33 bucks after tax. Steam is listing it as just under 31 Canadian before all the check out details are factored in.
Read a review of it on Steam, seems in sync with what I want. As much as I liked to abuse Religion and Spies in IV, I also found them annoyingly cheesy too.

I DO like hearing actual wargamers moan about not liking the hexes though. I mean, do they actually read what they type?
I utterly loathed stacks of doom from the low man Civilization appearing on my border with 50 units in a dozen stacks all of them so primitive that in the real world it would be like getting attacked by Somolia. And them actually defeating modern 20th weaponry. It threw credibility right out the window with me when that happened. I also didn't like needing to have large stacks of garritroopers sitting around doing nothing waiting on stacks of doom.

Civ V demands a lot more skill in a player.

[doomtrader]

3 hours to unlock,
I think I'll wait till tomorrow.

[doomtrader]

Played (or rather started) few games (scenarios) for couple of turns and so far I like what I saw.

[Joan d'Arc]

My first game underway at the moment has noticed a few tweaks here and there that seem like balancing acts. I used to like the Freedom Policy that generated the free settler. But they have now moved it to AFTER the option that used to be after the free settler. This means culture generating civs have to wait a bit longer to get that early game major perk of a free city very fast. France for instance was very good at having 2 cities very soon out of the starting gate. They also took the option that gave you 25% to Wonder generating, and put it at 15% bonus instead. I always liked using that with Egypt who already get a bonus. Which means they can't pump out wonders so easy as they could.

A friend is of the opinion that Austria is 'broken' with that marriages deal. I have not seen that yet though.
I have been hacking away at the whole Faith thing with France, but have not noticed any major game altering affect yet. It has allowed me to create a Religion early on, which allowed me to spread it and see capitals I might not have had as easy a time with doing. It has permitted me to little else though I think. I have embassies in 4 AI civs who don't have them in mine. Unsure it has been a good move or a bad move to deny them them in mine though.

Otherwise, the game so far has seemed like it has not been too broken. I would not be too surprised if a lot are just calling this a major mod you had to purchase.
But it has seemed like it was at least worth the 30 bucks I paid for it.