If you guys think that MTW/RTW had a tedious endgame, you haven't played Civ yet. Even if you weren't clearly winning and the game is still in doubt, the game gets very tedious in the end. My last game of Civ3, I had more than 100 cities in the end and got so sick of the micromanaging. I spent more than 100 hours playing and that game had no tactical battles.

The fact is, there has never been an acceptable AI and there never will be until we discover how to biologically create new lifeforms. Adding more cities will just add more to the micromanagement in the game. You could automate it, but again, the AI will surely be retarded and will never make decisions on the same level as a human does. I thought MTW had enough provinces already and I really don't wish for much more in RTW.