Newcomer here, having registered specifically to comment on this mod's thread. Thank you very very much for creating this mod, Rob, as it has breathed some new life into Civ V for me.
I tried my first playthrough as the Punt civilization, and reveled in their abilities. I find them to be a bit overpowered for their early game, but only because their unique improvement gives them +3 food on top of the +10% growth (a built in Temple of Artemis for their unique ability is amazing). However, it's probably because I got extremely lucky and found myself surrounded by jungles and forests for my first three cities. I'm sure the Punt wind up having that as a bias, but as you get farther and farther from their natural start area I found it simply not worth founding more cities. They seem to beg tall play with maybe 3 or 4 cities total. Despite that I got overzealous and tried going wide with them, and found myself struggling to get more happiness buildings going rather than just clicking off growth lol
I then tried Akkad. I enjoy playing Babylon in normal Civ V, and seeing Sargon himself as a leader (represented by Nebuchadnezzar II's in-game animations amused me) just tickled me. I find him to be very interesting to play; he starts off with a free monument in every city, which in his case is a unique building that offers up +1 science in addition to the culture. I, once again, found that to be quite advantageous for the very early game, but found it tapered off in the long run. Despite that I tried going wide again lol
My third civ was Isreal, and was delighted to found Jerusalem. I had a lovely desert area, and rushed Arbor Low while bee-lining for Water Deities to take advantage of the free shrine in my first four cities. Desert Folklore would be mine! I managed to get Arbor Low, founded my pantheon, and continued on to found my second city, Nazareth, soon thereafter. I founded my second city after researching Water Deities, and noticed I did not have a free shrine in this city. Did I have to have my first four cities founded before researching Water Deities? I did not expect this to be the case, and this shouldn't be the case, as one particular world wonder (the name eludes me) grants a free amphitheater in every city, and it continues on for cities founded after that wonder is build. That being said, I enjoy the concept of Isreal in this mod, but I feel there is a mistake in their coding, or the unique ability's text should be changed to reflect the actuality.
I came here to comment about these three little playthroughs, and then noticed that you've updated the mod on the 22nd. I'll have to download and try it anew then. I may give the Punt civilization another go, as they've quickly become a favourite of mine.
I am curious about something, though (and maybe this has been fixed by the recent update). In every game I'll roll over to turn 11, and a victory notification scrolls by along the side citing scientific victories. In checking the victory conditions panel, well, there are none. I can't even open it. Are there no victory conditions set yet? I also notice that the ideologies are renamed to reflect the mod's theme, but nothing else has changed ... and some of them don't do anything for the game (such as the ones that help get spaceship parts through great engineers and gold purchasing). I realize that the mod is still incomplete, but at least reflects Brave New World gameplay. I did want to mention these two things as I hadn't noticed any other mention of them.
Thanks again, and I'll continue to give my feedback as I play around with this mod.