ok...figured out may have happened.
My initial installation was off a CD. I was able to add patches via SD. I bet the people having problems getting the latest patch all installed by CD initially. The path to the CD version of the game is different then the path to the Drengin.net version of the game.
c:\program files\strategy first\galactic civilizations
vs...Drengin
C:\program files\Stardock\Drengin.net\galciv
I did an uninstall of the game thru Stardock uninstall button...then reinstalled from downloading version 1.10.072 (90MBs+)and then clicked run inside Stardock and I see version 1.10
I clicked on my old desktop icon and it wasn't working because it was pointing to the CD install path which no longer works if you have the downloaded and installed the entire game along the Drengin path
C:\program files\Stardock\Drengin.net
Under your Start-->Programs--> You'll find a new menu selection "Stardock Games"
So you can uninstall your install under Strategy First folder to get rid of older version if you download the entire game from Drengin.net
I think I'm starting to babble so...happy hunting..