I too was waiting around. I got some good news about my pay packet and decided to splash out after reading so long about it.
I figured that I would end up buying it anyway, so might as well just buy it now and play around with it until the patch comes out.
Overall I am glad I bought it, there is a good game buried in there and it is different to most of the releases at the moment. I prefer to play more niche games than the standard FPS/action fare.
Although, it is worth bearing in mind that there is no real tutorial, be prepared to have the forum running in the background as you play, to look up some things 
Be prepared to play in sandbox mode, the campaign is a little buggy and more confusing than just dropping into a custom game and meandering around yourself.
Be prepared to restart a good few games as you get used to starting builds and not crippling your starting towns through poor placement (ie not next to a farm!!).
However, what I really like about the game is the ability to customise at the beginning, it is not about picking a cookie cutter and playing through the story, it really enables you to create your own story. You want a powerful evil necromancer type you can do so, I currently have a nice paladin type running around.
I don't get any gripes about the graphics, I think the map view is awesome, you can zoom in to cities and see your people doing things, you can zoom out to a cloth map and see a great overview. That is pretty cool to me.
Tactical battles are little less tactical, however, it is still fun to abuse the AI.
Overall I think the game is worth the money, it is not yet a AAA title, however it is a good game just a little rough around the edges.
