[Shabbaman]

So okay, I started a game and went all-in on religion. I'm in the industrial age now, spreading my religion (herpaderpaism) like wildfire. Maybe I didn't pick anything worthwhile, but I'm not impressed by this religion thing (enter stage herr Mallison). The holy sites you can make with great prophets are worth it, but otherwise I'm not convinced. It's a good thing that it's keeping me from focusing on culture and going for the all too easy culture win though. Initial conclusion about religion:

-doesn't do a lot
-holy sites are great tile improvements
-distracts from going culture

Now, on to the bad thing. I had picked Austria, because my idea was that their unique ability is... somewhat unbalanced. For 500 gold, you can puppet or annex an allied CS. Let's do the math. You need 60 influence to get a CS to ally you. You get 15 influence for 250 gold (iirc). So for 1500 gold, you get a decently sized city, a couple of current tech units, some workers, improved lands, and a couple of resources. You could just do this over and over again, until there are no more CS left. I don't know what Firaxis is smoking, but I doubt balance is a word found in the civiliopedia.