I'm also a late-comer
I've been hooked on Logistical Puzzles (otherwise known as Strategy Games) ever since Empire. I'd been looking for a MOO II replacement for quite awhile when my wife saw a review of SEIV in one of the Gaming Magazines we regularly buy and showed it to me Last year (2000) about December. I read the review and then ordered the game.
I played it awhile and was a little disappointed in the AI and put it down until recently when I got a little burnt out on EverQuest where I am the Guildleader of a fair-sized guild. I picked it back up about a week ago and noticed that there had been about 4 patches since I Last played. I downloaded the latest patch and I am impressed by the improvements