Opinions you had about BNW that changed after actually playing it.

I think we all had opinions about certain things in BNW as we were fed info about it. However, after playing it, some of them might have changed.

For me: Venice.

Right when I heard about it I thought it was a joke. A city-state that can't annex. After playing it, though, it is rather awesome. At the time I didn't know how difficult it would be to make money in the early game and those extra trade routes, plus the puppets focusing on gold, make Venice swim in money. It was a great game with Venice.

So have any of your opinions going in changed after playing BNW?

AI Venice had 11k gold on 4 cities by the end game.

I was impressed. Too bad he diplomatic victory.

I personally thought the trade routes would be an easy deal. They're not. Well, they are later on, but early in the game they add yet another choice in the early "what should I build" conundrum.

The trade routes have been a set of surprises, both negative and positive. Positively they don't seem like much of a hassle, and don't require a lot of micromanagement. Negatively, they can get plundered by having a barb camp spawn next to them (and this is very costly early on!) and the AI doesn't really appreciate their value. Not once has an AI player tried to hinder my victory progress by attacking the trade routes that kept my nation going towards victory.

I had worries about Venice, but I've played them twice now and they are my favorite civ.

Also, even though it shouldn't have been a surprise, I was disappointed with the documentation of the new expansion. For example, I actually have to build each building/wonder to see their theming bonuses.