I think the DLC adds some extra flavour to the game but, as Noxia says, you may want to play the base game before committing more money. That said, AoW4 is my go to strategy / 4 X game at the moment. If you played the previous games you won't be disappointed. Only weak aspect imo is the lack of a campaign ... instead you get a handful of scenarios. However, most players prefer to play random skirmishes against the AI, so i can understand why the devs didn't flesh out the campaign/story more.