Penny Arcade has a take on it:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/news.php3?date=2003-04-11Nutshell: It's like
MOO3, but with less stuff. And easier. And more things make sense. The catch is that if you're the type that would really really like
MOO3 once you got past the fantastic learning curve, then you would like
GalCiv less, the problem of course being that the number of people who will ever get past
MOO3's learning curve
and like the game are slim.
Basically
GalCiv's a safer bet.