I bought Dominions II, but not Dominions I. It never grew on me, probably for most of the reasons Fyron mentions above. It's not a bad game, it just never worked for me.
Easy, big guys. I'm not defecting. There is no way I'll stop playing SE4. There is no harm in playing other games as well from time to time. It's just that I noticed one day when I clicked on "Who's Online" that there were a lot of people in the Dom II forum. Since then I check periodically and now the Dom II crowd seems to be growing quick. Could be a flash in the pan, could be a game worth getting. Thanks for the input. I'll check out the demo.
First impression from the demo: I guess I need to spend some time on the learning curve, but so far, there isn't much action. Maybe I'll put in some time later. For now, I got some planets to invade.