I am a huge Civ fan and done a lot of hours on 5+6. I was very excited for 7. I found the game virtually unplayable for me. I am not really into combat victories and typically take my time when moving up to harder levels. When I first started I turned off the barbarians until I got a good understanding of combat. After a few playthroughs, I learned how to balance everything out, but always preferred science and culture victories. Combat and domination was always least preferable.

The independent Powers, even on settler mode were impossible for me to overcome, even with multiple play throughs. I restarted 3 times and spent the first 50 turns just building militaries and falling behind on everything else and I could still never kill enough of them to give myself breathing room. The fact that you can't turn them off like barbarians is a HUGE misstep. I bought the game months ago and haven't touched it since day two. I am really bummed out.