[Chazar]

One thing to consider is that the download version comes with the manual as PDF. This has the advantage of being automatically searchable (Ctrl-F, etc.).

This is why I choose the download version over the shrink wrapped one. The drawback of the download version, however, is that you get the game only for one OS, while the CD allows you to play on different OSs (in the sense that you can play turn 37 with Linux and then turn 38 with Windows - or with whatever OS happens to be active when the sever tells you that it has hosted). For me this was a drawback, since I am frequently switching between Linux and Windows. I had not thought about that in advance and Shrapnel does not exchange download versions for understandable obvious reasons (I did ask politely for help already, but either I buy again or I need to run a virtual machine or reboot).