Is it worth getting the expansions?

[MyOtherName]

First off, I haven't played vanilla Civ4 so much that it's stale; it's still an enjoyable game. So, my interest in the expansions is if they make the game more fun to play -- e.g. if they fix "problems" in the game, and if the new features are truly interesting. (e.g. is the AI much better?)

An example of what I mean by "problem" is rounding in beakers, gold, et cetera. I know this is fixed in warlords by computing everything in hundredths... but I don't want to buy the expansion solely for that feature! (Aside: is this feature available from a mod?)

I know I can look on this site and find a laundry list of changes and additions, but it's hard to tell just how it translates into better (or worse?) gameplay.

I also find installation issues important; I just got the latest patch for vanilla Civ4. If getting a correct installation of either expansion requires much more effort than what I went through for vanilla, then I would be disinclined to get the expansion.

So, what's everybody's opinion?

 

[Wolfshanze]

Get BtS... I wouldn't bother with Warlords, as BtS has everything from Warlords except the scenarios.

BtS has a lot of good gameplay changes/enhancements... spies are a lot more useful and fun to mess with, there's more techs on the tree and (of course) more units added to the game... there's a lot of little enhancements, and I'd say the AI got tougher in BtS as well.

Oh, and there's a lot of good mods for BtS too... like "ethnic diversity" which allows Germans to look like Germans, Africans to look like Africans, Mongols to look like Mongols, etc, etc... instead of everyone just having ONE unique unit and every other unit looks European.

Like this:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=249129

 

[ggganz]

Yes, you should get BtS, install 3.13 patch if it doesn't come with it, and then download BUG, and also Blue Marble. They will make it 5up3r 4w350m3 d00d5

 

[zyphyr]

What they said.... Get BTS, skip Warlords, patch it. Much goodness will ensue.

 

[Sonnybonds]

I played all 3 and i think vanilla is still the best. But i know must players prefer BTS.

BTS is very good but doestn ad that much to the gameplay IMO. The spy concept is even ruining a bit gameplay because you can see almost everything of your opponent if you have enough EP.

But the apostel palace and cooperations are great.
I dont know about better AI or not because i only play Multiplayer.

 

[ggganz]

Apostolic Palace isn't that powerful, becasue it happens during the time when everyone is so stingy about their religion, and you can't vote for Diplo Victory until everyone has at least one city with the religion of the Palace.

can be fun to mess around with, but IMHO it needs serious tweaking if anyone is actually going to use it to win.

Vassals (came with Warlords) are just a piece of crap, you have to be extremely careful, and you should turn them off. I don't because I like playing normal, Play Now games.

The new civs, units, and buildings, and the Unique Building feature, make the expansion pack all worthwhile.

One more note: there seems to be a different style of graphics with each expansion pack. In Warlords the new leaders looked better but the buttons for units and stuff looked cheap. In BtS, the leaders looked kinda weird, didn't show depth, their hair looked kinda flat. And the buttons got super crappy. But in BtS they made all the modern units look shiny, even the ones that were already there.