Idk man, how do you know it's a paid DLC? I mean nobody said anything about that yet. And if it were gonna be a paid one, how would the rank games work? I paid for Japan and you didn't so only i get to choose that civ and beat your azz with it? Doesn't sound half fair to me, dude.
Good point, the price is not mentioned there at the moment - but the DLC got it´s own Steam-page, that´s why it is likely to be a paid DLC. Free DLC don´t have their own page. And the rest is integrated similar to the Age2-DLCs that are paid - if I buy the Rome one, I have Rome (or Dukes or India). I don´t know how it is for ranked games, but this might work just the same. I personally think, they will release it in October for the 2nd anniversary of the game, so there is only one month to wait.