I only play on large maps and I've started a lot of games (because of patches, trying to learn the game, dissatisfaction with the map setup, etc.). The conclusion is pretty clear: I run into the AI too soon (even with just 4 opponents) and my empire ends up being 3-4 cities at most before I have to start thinking about war. This goes back to my earlier complaints about just how small this game feels overall (few cities, few units, small maps).
Combine this with a hyper-aggressive AI (even on easy) and the game has a rushed, almost Starcraft feel to it. Build up fast, build up units fast, and await the initial rush of AI attacks (usually from Kraxis, if they are in the game, and they seem to be in every game).
The maps are also bare wastelands too often. In my latest game (which I gather I'll have to abandon), I managed to "control" a large portion of the land area of my bizarre, thin continent, but it's completely empty -- and this is AFTER pushing the adventure line of tech to show more resources. There were only 3 viable places to build new cities (and by viable, I mean simply in range of at least one resource). I found a horrible location for a fourth when a shard was located pinned against the coast by forests (and that city is quite terrible).
I have other map-related complaints:
1. Too much of the surface area is usually filled with forests, hills, or other things that slow movement. It makes exploration tedious.
2. The shape of continents is counter-intuitive and nonsensical. I should take screenshots of the game referenced above -- the portion of the land mass I control looks like a great worm with several bulges in it.
A lot of this would simply be fixed by having an actual, large map -- not the smallish map that is posing as a large map now. Considering how big galaxies could be in Gal Civ 2, I'm stunned that this is how Elemental turned out.
