I've been wanting this game for so long and now I've finally got it but finding it hard to get people willing to learn to play it. I'm a big fan of the Civ pc series and have played it since the original on the amiga 500 back in the early 90's. Not having played many complex board games like this it took me a whole weekend to unbox and figure out. This game is really complex. I've finally got the hang of the rules and had a couple of games and I love it but unfortunately my gf does not. Tried to get some of my family into it but they were put off by the learning curve.
So as far as the game goes now that I have got a grasp of the rules I really like it and can't wait to play it. Downside is finding like minded people willing to put in the effort to learn how to play the game. So if you have a core group of board gamers and already into similar games like settlers of cattan then I would highly recommend this. Its reviewed well on the net too with about 8/10's.
My rating I will give it the same 8/10. They have done a great job of converting the pc game into a well polished beautifully presented board game. There's also some downloadable content on gameboardgeek.com that helps with keeping track of things while you play the game which gets difficult once you have 3 cities and get closer to the end of the game.