Quote Originally Posted by The_Jackal View Post
I completely agree. I think the decision to introduce real-world religious denominations into the game was a horrid decision, as was the decision to provide powerful bonuses for those religions which made them impossible to ignore. I'm also really not a fan of the changes they made to the game to make the braindead AI less hampered by the game's rules. Addition of culture mechanics to prevent military force from being effective, and removal of zones of control to reduce the importance of strategic control of territory and positioning, and finally the one unit-per-tile change which hampered your ability to effectively concentrate forces, and therefore further de-fanged conquest. It took what was a relatively fun guns and butter game, and turned it into an over-complicated housekeeping chore.

It's my considered opinion that Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri/Alien Crossfire was the last great Civ-type game.
I didn't mind the addition of religion. What I hate was the religious victory conditions, especially in 6 where unless you dedicate a couple cities to fighting it off, you'll be subject to an endless stream of missionaries regardless of your border status.