When playing empire at war I always enjoyed the 'strategic map' the most in that game, but it was so bare bones and I wished it was more developed.
Well I had high hopes for this game and thus preordered a couple of weeks ago and got to play it yesterday for a good amount of time. well i'm glad to report that this is everything i hoped it would be.
To all those people who felt the same way about 'empire at war' as i did and are looking into this game right now, I can only recommend it to you.