Hello !
At last a review on Civ5, and not a review of "What civ 5 is missing from civ 4". I appreciate !
I agree with most of the points.
My principal problem is, as you, the difficulty to see something well on the map. I don't think it's a graphic problem, just that colors/UI are not well thinked. I dislike the new system in town (the coin's one) : it's difficult to discern which tile is used or not, and what are my choices.
I would add/discuss with others points :
1) Do you think it is well balanced to be able to sell all luxury resources to IA so early in the game ? I mean... selling ivory or gold for 200-300 randomly to an IA... Just insane. And they always accept it. With this gold you can randomly buy good tiles/buy workers/be friend with a CS.
And that the point where I don't understand you in your review : the power of of CS. You prefer destroying them and building your own city. But if you invest the gold in it (ok it's better with some leader like greeks) : you will often have strategic resources, luxury resources (OMG you sell one to be friend with a CS to get back one...) AND food if you aim at a sailing CS (but you might do this). This last point is the power : you don't need to bother for food in your town, just click on "focus production or gold", and you'll have tons of food with CS.
2) I'd prefer seeing the effect of each action with IA in diplomacy. At first point because I don't remember all, and second thing because I think diplomacy should be at last interesting, compared to civ 4. I was extremely bored in civ 4 because, at the end, religions and behaviours were the only matters that really counted, and that was always THE reason to attack you. Modifiers were too high. And it was just impossible to be exactly in the same configuration as 2 others IA. So you might expect to be really friend/ally with one IA (with a completely stupid combinaison of configurations) but all others were at war with you because you don't do slavery anymore at 1850AD, or you were not christian etc...
At second point because it's IA. It has to act according to a specific rule. And you have to know the rule... So you have to know the exact current state with an IA.
If I don't want to know want does another player is planning, I play multiplayer with real guy
So... It should be a game parameter in order to please both !
3) Remove the military upgrade from ruins. It should be xp, but not improving the unit unless you have the appropriate technology. A scout->Archer is just too much OP
4) First troup improvement is useless. We should have more choices than just +20% on open filed o +20% on accidented tiles. Adding a "tree improvements" like the "science tree" would be very useful too.
edit : idea of improvement :
I think it would be great if you had some bonuses when being in a specific age. For example : behind in a specific age give you bonuses for building wonder from this age, and malus for others. So it could be a strategy to not advance on the next age in order to build faster a specific wonder. It would add a real strategy to the existence of ages, instead of just a changement of cities display