New to Galciv franchise: should I bother with DL? Or straight to DA?

[Orcrist]

I realize the answers will be highly subjective, but that's fine since I'm only looking for subjective answers

Thusfar all my TBS experience has been limited to the Sid Maier stuff and it's spawn/spinoffs: Civ II, SMAC, CTP 1 (hated it), Civ III (bleh), and Civ IV (yay!). I've heard a lot of good stuff about Galciv II, especially since the later patches, and now even more since DA has been released. So now I've taken the plunge and gotten the Gold edition of Galciv II. I've only just played around with the starting options and looking at the first couple of turns in both DL and DA ( a LOT to learn ). Anyway the purist in me is saying: first play DL at least once through before doing DA; but then it sounds like a lot of the improvements in DA aren't limited to additional features (e.g. AI improvements), so the perfectionist in me is saying just start right off with DA.

I know it's not an earth-shattering dilemma , but I'd be curious to hear any thoughts or opinions...

Thanks!

[Island Dog]

Well my subjective view is to play through Dread Lords, and then continue into Dark Avatar. While DA is a great expansion, DL is still great to play through.

Have you updated the game through Stardock Central?

[yin26]

Answer #1: You paid for all of it, so play all of it.

Answer #2: Obviously DA is going to offer an experience that builds off player feedback and added dev. time. So if the purist screams louder than the money manager, go straight to DA.

How's that?

[Hydro]

I think you can play both since they are both great games. I know I enjoyed both, although I only play DA now.

Hydro

[tetley]

Every single game I have ever played, I have never wanted to play the original if the expansion is already out. I may run through the campaign games in the original, but never the sandbox. Galciv2 is no exception--Dark Avatar is out, play it.

[SerapisIV]

I have similar questions as I'm planning to buy GalCiv later this summer and am interested in knowing if I should double my cost by buying the Gold Edition.

Once players have DA, have they gone back to DL? Is it tough to go back to DL after getting used to DA changes?

[Hydro]

Buy Gold. It's a bargain at ~$30.

Hydro

[Island Dog]

Agreed. The Gold edition is a great value and that's what I would recommend if you plan on purchasing.

[Maasu]

I don't think i could go back to DL after playing DA.

Certainly play the DL campaign but for custom games you want DA.