In my opinion Romanians civ could be civ added for free as part of the update. Making this civ part of the payload DLC would create bizarre complications, e.g. the ability to play them throughout the campaign, but not being able to play them in a skirmish or multiplayer. Adding this civ for free would make it easier to release 4 DLCs containing 2 new civs each. So the “40 civ” would be Romanians civ.
Examples of the last 4 DLCs:
- Danube DLC - Serbo-Croatians civ and Habsburgs civ (civ which the creators were considering adding. A more appropriate name would be Bavarians civ)
- Caucasus DLC - Georgians civ and Armenians civ
- African DLC - Zimbabwe civ and Congolese civ
- Asian DLC - Siamese civ and Dravidians civ
Personally, I would prefer the number of civs to be kept close to a round number, e.g. 50 or 55 as a minimum. I believe that the proposal I gave above fits the 48 civs limit as much as possible. I hope the developers will continue to develop this game to have a nicer civs number than 48 - prettier means a little bigger 