kris
Arcane
I pretty much only plays civ now for the exploring phase. Game gets boring after that and turns take to long on bigger maps.
If you're interested in playing a game with an interesting exploring phase, try Birth of the Federation.
http://www.armadafleetcommand.com/onscreen/botf/index.php
That was a blast from the past. I played it quite a bit some years ago. While you could play different factions, it was more or less made to play the federation as you got the most out of it with them.