Yeah it was amazing at first. More Civilization to waste countless hours on. But after awhile all the little nagging doubts start adding up. It's still a great game and I enjoy it thoroughly but it is not the perfect experience.
 
The AI in this game is terrible to be honest. It can't handle the new one unit per tile rules. Basic stuff like putting warriors in front of archers would go a long way to making the game more interesting. As it is you can hold off entire armies with a couple archers or cannons of your own holding down chokepoints. And forget naval combat altogether, the AI simply isn't interested in it and will not give you a fight. If you want to put your fleet to use you'll have to park it outside a barbarian camp.
 
The AIs empire management is lacking as well. Early game you are going to get outproduced and enemy civs will grab up as much land as they can get a hold of. Too bad this game puniishes you for unchecked expansion, and if you survive to the renaissance any danger melts away as the AI will have nothing but a pile of tiny, unhappy cities.
 
Just as well that the game tends to end around this time as late game balance is completely out of whack. You're discouraged from experimenting with late game units as it generally takes less time to research the next best thing. And at that point it's quicker to build the space shuttle than assemble an army.