...As you note, there will be tons of units and cities at the end of the game, and that has an effect no matter what. On the other hand, we are doing a lot to streamline various aspects of the game, and that will significantly improve the late-game experience. For instance, you will be able to easily group units and command them as one. You can also select multiple cities and give them all the same build orders at the same time. Workers can be grouped together, and then their actions within that group can be queued--so you can tell three workers to build a road to a certain point and not have to mess with them for several turns. Finally, we eliminated the elements that tended to slow down the late game, including pollution cleanup, city riots, and units disbanding because you have money issues. So, the late-game experience should be as much fun as the rest of the game.