I've only played the game for a few hours, so can't really comment that much on game balance, AI, replayability and the like. One thing I noticed right away is that the UI is extremely well done. Big improvement compared to 4X/RTS games that plays like clickfests or spreadsheets.
Got the email 5 minutes ago, and I'm now downloading at a cool 12Mbps. Big thankyou to the hamsters.
Dang. I who preordered a couple days ago, suppose I'm at the end of the preorder queue. /me goes off on an epic rant about how horrible and unjust the world is, whilst doing an impressive impersonation of [link="http://youtube.com/watch?v=kBVmfIUR1DA"]angry German kid[/link] ;) Jut tell those hamsters spinning the wheels in your server to keep running.