Nah nothing can't be handled with the right culture card. Priorities definitely have shifted from Civ 5. Some sort of basic military build up is a must.
The other things I don't like is that it takes SO FEAKING LONG to build the city zones! 20 turns is ridiculous!
I just bought Civ 5 like a month ago..... I don't know, I do think it is a good game.... But I just loved Age of Empires as a kid and never feel like any of style of games live of to AOE 2 and 3.
I play this game that I bought in South Korea, it's basically Rock/Paper/Scissors and you're playing against a hot young girl, and when you win she takes a piece of clothing off. It's groundbreaking new technology. I'd tell you the name of it but I don't speak Hangul.