I'd consider leaving a neutral review if I could. The games has some amazing pros, but is held back across the board by the cons and isn't worth $30 at this point in time.

The game's premise is very good. However, as others have complained about weird AI, trading, politics, and incredibly tedious empire management hold it back. Additionally, bugs or lack of clarity with things like trading and resource consumption each turn make it really hard to understand where your economy stands turn to turn, and sometimes you have to hope things don't implode without knowing why if you're in a tough spot. I'd get it again on sale, but it's not worth $30, and doesn't have the polish that a finished game should have.

This is unfortunate because there's some gold in the game too. Requiring logistics for many things including trade is often overlooked, but present here. The revolts and independence movements give simple counterplay for humans (with resource management required) but makes things interesting with the AI. The supply chains and optimal building patterns are deceptively complex. There's a lot of flavor for smaller, often overlooked nations. It just doesn't properly execute on any of the ideas quite in the way it needs to.