I decided to fully play through the extent of the "scenario"during a moment of free time ill play a more sensible play through next time but i digress.
my initial thoughts the shift between cultures is ok frankly i would love to switch between Zhou to Japanese but i couldn't because the scenario ended during the medieval era. i burned through the science tree surprisingly it doesn't help that Zhou gives a bonus for settling in mountainous areas i should have been more expansionist but i played pacifist. the only game i lost in the play through is religion. it felt like it was not a focus. i picked some African culture for the merchants. but it did not work out in my favor i did not anticipate the merchant game and such i would probably been better off with the Greeks. then i picked England as my final culture which is great but i had little to no interest in it i was trying to reach the early modern era to get the edo Japanese feature. now i would like to suggest if possible. that cultures that don't get a link throughout the ages get new unique districts throughout the ages kinda rewarding traditionalism. for instance Zhou to Han. Zhou gets a unique chariot unit and science district the Confusion School. Han has a unique infantry unit a pike and sword formation with the unique district the porclien kiln a unique industry district that profits by being surrounded by other makers quarters. I know this breaks with your initial concept and i love it but again i feel like their should have been more cultures thanks for the game i appreciate it.