Man, every thread about Civ 5 turns into a referendum on its merits as a game and compared to Civ 4. I think we've beaten that horse enough. I find Civ 5 enjoyable anyway despite its flaws that are well chronicled by now.
The expansions have improved Civ 5 considerably, but really by rebalancing and bug fixing and hole plugging, and not so much the actual expansion content. Things like redesigned city-state quests, rebalanced policy trees and bulbs and research agreements, added units to fill gaps on the tech tree, AI improvements. I don't know how much of this stuff filtered into vanilla along the way as compared to the expansions.
Quote:Is the base game without any expansions worth a go?
The expansions have improved Civ 5 considerably, but really by rebalancing and bug fixing and hole plugging, and not so much the actual expansion content. Things like redesigned city-state quests, rebalanced policy trees and bulbs and research agreements, added units to fill gaps on the tech tree, AI improvements. I don't know how much of this stuff filtered into vanilla along the way as compared to the expansions.