It seems that they preserved the treasure-hunting / questing mechanics.
Heroes are still around. Hopefully they are still mortal. Hopefully you can still channel your spells through them.
Racial-based factions are replaced with class-based factions. So you'll be Merlin the human WIZARD instead of Merlin the HUMAN wizard. I'll miss the old factions but look forward to this innovation.
UI looks like Civ V, which is nice, because I liked Civ V's UI and disliked almost everything else about the game.
Units show up as multiple people on the battle map! Woot! Some of them drop dead when the unit gets wounded! Woot! I always imagined each unit in AoW2 to be composed of multiple people, anyway. It would be weird if a town of 1000 people can only churn out a single infantryman per day.
Conclusion: Want want want.
What are you talking about, Civ5 was the best for AI and diplomacy!
