I played this game originally when it came out.
It is a quite good game, and the start - expansion phase is very fun, getting to find a good site for your first city and building it up.
The combat is fun to a degree but the "game board" is a few squares too small for it to be a huge selling point.
The problem with the game is in my view that it lacks long term perspective. It gets dull a little too fast for my liking.