Have you played Elemental yet?
yes
I bought it a week ago and so far have 'invested' more hours into then I have in Civ V since the launch date.
I've invested many hours too. But before Civ5 came out. Now I appreciate Civ5 much more then many people here.
The game might have been buggy at release (I didn't buy then), but it's perfectly playable now, is very deep and fun to play. It gives me that 'just one more turn' feeling that Civ V is not.
It was buggy, it's still buggy (fast patching makes new bugs creep all the time), but my my main complain is with bad balance that ruins any semi-balance of interesting choices in the game.
As well as general unfinishness of the game. You know, there is total of one 6th level spell, for example (plus, many are carbon copies of each other, just with different element flavor). Or that summons rule all. Or glass heroes that are only good as casters, since they die from single hit in melee?
And diplomacy... There is pretty much nothing to do with it. Civ5 may have issues with it, but in Elemental there is pretty much no reason to use those screens exempt to activate "broken" economy/research agreements (that give flat +x% bonus). Not to mention that only important factor is player army. if strong everybody will like you and getting diplo victory would be as easy as exploring whole world to meet all factions.
Is it perfect? Heck no, not even close, it suffers from the same AI defects as Civ V but it offers way more options/features at launch then Civ V and is more along the lines of Civ IV:BTS albeit with magic elements.
AI in elemental is simply atrocious. Only challenge give roaming monsters, not enemy kingdoms. And you don't buy 4X game just to play tower defense game.
I never lost a single battle against enemy factions (and unit loses where minimal, if any). Combination of first strike kills anything, and with dumb battle AI, that just rushed forward, that means instant victory.
.
After finishing many games, there just wasn't enough challenge to be interested in playing more.
P.S.
Now, don't get me wrong. Elemental is bad game in state as is, but it could be improved. And Stardock seems dedicated enough to make it happen.
So not all is lost. I'll surely try it a bit more after 1.1 is out. At least to see new mana system.