I have played a little with the new maps and I am not such a big fan of the 3 player one but really, really like the 4 player one. It has gotten me back into the game again. I did see that the one realm is being moved to north of the river and I also think that will be a very helpful change to the map.
I also answered on the Facebook page, but I think it would be cool to have a 5+ person map too.
I have been playing this game for years and I have read over and over that the SEI/SWI will never return, but my question is why? I don't think I remember exactly why they will not be returning. They were so much fun when you only had to worry about fighting and never food or real diplomacy. Was it a coding issue or something else?