I am confused about expansions - the descriptions on Slitherine's site lists various features for the different expansions. E.g. Immortal Fire lists "enhanced A.I." as one of its features - does that mean that as long as I don't buy that specific expansion, I am playing against an inferior...

Love the hexes and turn-based. Moving to continuous time (i.e. real-time or continuous time with or without pause) or space (i.e. no grid (hexes or squares) would put me off the game big-time.

I agree. I am tempted to pick up this game, but the demo not working is very off-putting.

Shame as out of the strategic European games I've looked at, this is the most appealing one... but without a working demo to try it out, I am unlikely to buy it.