No Russia in the Base Game?

[TheGhostEnthusiast]

For me the basis of thinking Britain is missing is:
a) England has already been translated into a VII civ in the form of the Normans. It fits the "minimum representation of as many people as possible first" approach.
b) the PAX panel where they talked about the history of London had them reveal France as the end of chain started with Rome and Normans. Why would they not go for Britain there if that's what they talked about the whole time?! I think Ed Beach was talking about Britain the same way he talked about the Gauls and Franks. Hypothetical civs that explain how their design philosophy reflects history, not necessarily namedropping base game civs. He also talked about a full Japan stack in an interview as one thing the civ switching system can do but apprently we also won't get more than a single Japan civ in the base game.

To play devil’s advocate, they were showing off the suggested paths of leaders specifically, and while Napoleon and Ashoka have already been revealed, we don’t even know if we’ll have a British ruler. In that context, it makes sense.