The old conundrum... Pirates are here, so they take another civilization's spot. Don't really believe in it.
I find it good that we switched away from "we put in the game things that were historically relevant" to "we put in the game things that might be fun". First, because "historically relevant" is nonsensical and skewed towards you particular education, and second, because we'd have yet again the same things very close to one another with minimal gameplay changes.
In a DLC about naval gameplay, the Republic of Pirates has totally its place, because it's the excuse to bring new and exciting gameplay. I guess some would have preferred Portugal, for example, but that'd be just Spain 2.0. Where's the variety in that?
So I'm all for it. They might be the Bulgarian-upon-the-Sea civ, which could be interesting, especially if they can take point from treasure fleets themselves.
Which begets other questions: from all the civs, which one belong to which Age? I guess Pirates are exploration, as well as the Ottomans (although they could be in Modern, but they'd fit better in Exploration). But what about Tonga and Iceland? Chronologically speaking, I'd put Iceland into Exploration, but I think they're planned into Ancient. As for Tonga, they couldn't be before Exploration (as it was founded in the 13th century IIRC), but their wonder Ha'amonga 'a Maui is an Ancient wonder (which, now that I think about it, is weird). So would that mean that the Tonga are also an Ancient civ? That would give us 2 Ancient and 2 Exploration civs, without Modern one (except if they put Ottomans in Modern).
But if Iceland is in Ancient, could that mean that they'd get abilities to cross the oceans earlier, in the Ancient Era? That'd be great, though, not gonna lie, being the first one to be able to explore the Distant Lands and have your pick of the litter, although in terms of balance and how the game is designed, I don't know how it'd fit in...
What do you think? What age for each civ?
Edit: just saw the leaks, Tonga is Ancient (same Khmer logic, I guess) and Pirates are Exploration (as guessed), but I wonder for Iceland and Ottomans, as both could be in each age of their respective ages.