Good game but I prefer Civ V

There have been many changes and perhaps it's unfair to compare the content to what's available in Civ V, but the comparison must be made because there's not much else in the genre (that I'm aware of) for alternate history-marching TBS. The amount of options, game modes, leaders, and play styles seem so much more diverse for the older game that there isn't much of a reason to play the new thing with different (better? arguable...not into the cartoonish aesthetic) graphics and updated tech.

There also seems to be a much more aggressive curve for barbarians and other leaders. It just doesn't seem viable to play a non-militaristic build at decent difficulty levels. The method of obtaining peaceful victory conditions seem to involve putting the opposition on an island and hampering their development with force while you build your culture or space program. Lastly the binary AI for leaders (hey I like this, I don't like that, immediate denouncement) leads to stale situations where you don't have much of a choice how to proceed while keeping the peace.

I don't know if the answer is balance, wait for more content, just play steamroller builds, or what it is. I just think V is a better game. Thanks for reading.

[b]Good game but I prefer Civ V[/b] There have been many changes and perhaps it's unfair to compare the content to what's available in Civ V, but the comparison must be made because there's not much else in the genre (that I'm aware of) for alternate history-marching TBS. The amount of options, game modes, leaders, and play styles seem so much more diverse for the older game that there isn't much of a reason to play the new thing with different (better? arguable...not into the cartoonish aesthetic) graphics and updated tech. There also seems to be a much more aggressive curve for barbarians and other leaders. It just doesn't seem viable to play a non-militaristic build at decent difficulty levels. The method of obtaining peaceful victory conditions seem to involve putting the opposition on an island and hampering their development with force while you build your culture or space program. Lastly the binary AI for leaders (hey I like this, I don't like that, immediate denouncement) leads to stale situations where you don't have much of a choice how to proceed while keeping the peace. I don't know if the answer is balance, wait for more content, just play steamroller builds, or what it is. I just think V is a better game. Thanks for reading.