That new artwork is kinda rough and gets in the way of the information, especially compared to the distinct style of the original... hope the original will still be available!
In terms of editions, will the "new society" expansion be available to play with first edition? My understanding is second edition has variations of some elements of that, but more poorly implemented and missing a ton of the best ones. First edition + New Society is always what I've found to be by far the best version of the game. Balances costs, adds great new cards and variation for additional balance, but keeps the exact same gameplay structure, which works well.
Specifically, playing it right now, the lack of balance in terms of observatory cost, mistress of ceremonies being 6 and 3 instead of 3 and 4, and single potjemkin's village instead of scaled set of three, are all leading to less interesting games and less strategy, more luck. Same with the lack of New Farmers in the workers--getting lucky with cheap workers is a way bigger random advantage when there's not an on-its-own beneficial more expensive one.
