Celts
Fractal (2 big blob continents next to each other
)
Emperor
Standard
Epic
Raging Barbs
Won with Domination 503ish turns
All of Liberty, all of the, uh, CS tree (not worth it imo), a few in the science tree for happiness, and the 1st one of order
3 Golden ages from happiness alone. I think I had 70 happiness at one point. I didn't build happiness buildings until late renaissance!
Over all, I like the expansion, but it has some issues naturally. The absolute most frustrating thing about it is the bug they introduced in the patch before the expansion. The unit icons disappearing after battle and not reappearing until you move the unit. This needs to be fixed pronto!
Religion is ok. Another buff train like the social polices. Crazy amount of options which is nice, I need to explore it further before a determination can be made. Looks to be mostly an early ages buff as it's supposed to be.
Spies. Kinda like a side game. Ok for distraction, but CS's flip like pancakes in the expansion. Not really useful except for examining a city to see what they building while prepping for invasion. Tried all the other options. Meh.
War needs work. I didn't notice the AI playing any better. But the 100 hitpoint thing bites. No lie, I hit a Swordsman in the open with a Cannon, then had to hit twice with 2 different 100% healed Musketmen to kill it. Crazy. Giant quagmires trying to plow through units to get to cities. Everything is too hard to kill, well, not hard, but takes to many hits to eliminate it. It was like this throughout the ages.
The change to the way the turns go is frustrating. Hitting end turn just means that you are only halfway done. The other way had some issues, but this way is more frustrating I find. Especially after a minute or two, you realized that your aren't waiting on the AI to take it's turn, the game is waiting on you to re-finish your turn. Can't we just have a button that ends the turn, regardless if units still haven't been given orders? The every-unit-must-have-orders style is starting to wear on me I guess.
Great Scientists nerfed hard. I'm ok with it, just need to adjust.
Stealth Bombers nerfed hard. Way to late to be useful.
Pikemen upgrade to Lancers? One of them most useful units upgrades to the least useful. Odd choice.
Military CS's give some odd units. Like other civs UU. I got a lot of landschrects and the unpronounceable horse unit from the danes. Not complaining, but working as expected? Maritime CS's should give ships imo.
WTF am I supposed to do with the HERD of great generals I earn? Can't pop them for golden ages, and the fort is extremely situational. I think great artists are the only great people you can pop for golden ages. I ended the game with 7 generals. Working as expected?
Ships seem ok. Super nice for capital sniping. That's how I finished the domination for the last civ. Rowed in with 4 or 5 destroyers and a couple of battleships. Capital dead in 2 turns. Nice, gonna abuse this big time.
I see several new map types.
I found tanks to be more useful, mostly because units take forever to die. WWI tanks were fun, but the WWI bombers seemed weak, which they were. Only really useful to build up a stash of them to upgrade later.
The game lets you move around the map during the AI's turn much much better. Mostly smooth with no locking you in place as your CPU works. Very nice. This has been on my wish list since Civ 1.
Good expansion, needs some tweeking.