Whilst the religion has the intriguing ability to be different each time, depending on which beliefs you choose, I have yet to see the great sweeping religious wars that it could cause in cIV. Nor does it have the ability to bring about world peace, and victory if the entire world comes to your religion and you basically become super pope. For the most part the religion aspect of ciV seems mostly to be something else for you to have to worry about building in your cities, distracting from troops or buildings. So many of the supposed benefits are only possibilities rather than sureties, it's almost like playing the lottery, though the odds area a lil better than that. Be careful not to fall into the trap of building too many prophets, they cost a lot more than missionaries, but only have one more conversion ability.
The spies also have left me wanting a bit, as they really can't do all that much. O sure, now you can look inside a city to see what is being built, but you can't sabotage that in any way, so at most it gives you a little warning of a troop build up or a wonder nearing completion. If you're behind technologically your spy can steal techs (after a very long time), but if you're ahead they just sit there. The ability to effect a city state's voting outcome only really seems to be usable by the AI, as every time I've looked I only have a zero percent chance of achieving such a feat. Apparently the best thing my spies can accomplish is to let me know so and so is going to invade someone else, and then gain a lil favor with them if I send a warning.
Great leaders have significantly been changed, the addition of a Great Admiral being the most immediately obvious and helpful. I was very saddened though to see the changes to the Great Merchant, who can no longer start a golden age, leaving them only useful if there are city states in the world. Without city states present, they have no ability to do anything except take up space, so I was forced to use the delete unit button. The Great Artist has also been severely limited, due to the ability to culture bomb being taken away, which at least for me was it's primary use.
Moving to the one hundred point combat system seems to have been a brilliant move, which I am very happy with. Though I will definitely admit being annoyed by enemy units surviving at one percent health. I have definitely noticed an improvement in how the AI sends out it's armies, as well as in how it fights yours. Finally an AI that has some real tactics instead of just numbers.
The new civilizations seem to fit in well, and the Carthaginian ability to cross mountains isn't as alarming as it sounds. O yes, no longer are they safe boundaries if they're you're neighbor, but any Carthaginian units that end their turn on the mountain lose fifty health points. That eliminated my main fear (and hope) of them hiding up on the mountains, where I couldn't go, and pounding my units from above.
Boudicca and her Celts may be too powerful though, or it was just my luck of the draw. In my first Gods and Kings game I played as them, and the game was all too easy. The second saw my forces, and that of the rest of the world combined, unable to keep up with them. I'm in my third game now (as the Dutch), no Celts are present, and the world seems fairly well balanced without them in it. Hopefully I'm wrong, and the first two were just the way those games went. But I shall def be keeping an eye out for Celts showing up.
As I said I'm only in the third game of Gods and Kings, so maybe my opinion will change in the future, and if it does I shall be sure to let you know. For now though, I'll just keep hoping thing get better.
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