To begin my post, I've been in the beta since the first phase of phase one, and had followed the game for a good deal of time before that.

Today, having played the release version, I just simply don't think the game is any good. The combat system is horribly unrefined, the beginning of a new game is extremely dull, with very little room for creativity on the player's part, and the conflict experienced feels woefully insignificant and small-scale.

Stardock, if you want to get this game in line, you need to do a few things : First, provide the player with more options as to what kind of units can be built on turn one. Second, refine the turn-based combat system to be a tad more strategic : my advice is that you take a look at Pox Nora for ideas. Third, allow players to better specialize their cities, and give them more options to do so on turn one. Fourth, and last, make a difference between strategic resources, and regular resources - that is to say, keep the current strategic resources like Metal Deposits, Magic Crystals, etc, but change the value of normal tiles so that things like grass tiles have some sort of inherit value, coastal tiles should have some sort of inherit value, etc. This way there'll be more to determining where you place your cities than whether or not there happens to be a strategic resource nearby.