Civ 5

[Nine]

I didn't know that expansions would differ the gameplay that much, I'm only using the vanilla version. In fact, I didn't even plan on buying the game or playing it, but a friend of mine gifted it to me on Steam, so I thought, why the fuck not. Are there any expansions you recommend, or any DLC for that matter?

It adds quite a few game mechanics and other civs. I'm not sure how much I like them yet. In hindsight I probably would have waited longer to buy the expansions.

Also, with the Earth map, is it actually exactly like Earth, or is it quite a bit different to what the actual layout of continents is like on Earth? Does it also affect where your civ starts?

It's just like earth, all the land is more or less where it should be. The civs seem to start randomly placed. Makes for some interesting alternative history XD