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Excellent review Vel. I too was a big SMAC fan and I felt that Civ 3 was a step backwards for the series. But I'm totally hooked on Civ 4. Heres something I'd like to add to your review.
As you pointed out in your review, a big part of the attraction of Civ/SMAC series has been the jigsaw of overlapping factors in your empires success. This means that every strategy has an opportunity cost and makes for "interesting choices". A weakness in previous Civ games has been that AI Diplomacy always felt like an arbitrary and random process disconnected from the rest of the game.
But in Civ 4 AI diplomacy is woven into the interlocking layers of strategy. Want the AI to like you? Research an early religion and export it to your rivals and you'll have a much more peaceful game. But theres an opportunity cost here. Researching an early religion means passing up other strong research beelines. And building monasteries and missionaries early in the game costs important early production that could be spent on other buildings.
Culture impacts diplomacy too. You can use your culture in the early game to grab AI territory, but don't be surprised if the AI gets touchy because "close borders creates tension".
I think its a huge improvement to the series that diplomacy has been woven into the complex "advantage/opportunity cost" jigsaw of Civ strategy.
Tony
As you pointed out in your review, a big part of the attraction of Civ/SMAC series has been the jigsaw of overlapping factors in your empires success. This means that every strategy has an opportunity cost and makes for "interesting choices". A weakness in previous Civ games has been that AI Diplomacy always felt like an arbitrary and random process disconnected from the rest of the game.
But in Civ 4 AI diplomacy is woven into the interlocking layers of strategy. Want the AI to like you? Research an early religion and export it to your rivals and you'll have a much more peaceful game. But theres an opportunity cost here. Researching an early religion means passing up other strong research beelines. And building monasteries and missionaries early in the game costs important early production that could be spent on other buildings.
Culture impacts diplomacy too. You can use your culture in the early game to grab AI territory, but don't be surprised if the AI gets touchy because "close borders creates tension".
I think its a huge improvement to the series that diplomacy has been woven into the complex "advantage/opportunity cost" jigsaw of Civ strategy.
Tony
is indeed a lot. Luckily I did experience only 1 in all my games. I must confess though that my system isn't just a 'minimal requirement' rig, so maybe I'm not a good example in that aspect 
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