This is a great game in the mold of Civ V. If you like the Civilization series or Total War or that type but looking for something a little different, you will likely love this game. My review is of the base game, no DLC.

On the whole, I highly recommend this strategy game.

Standout features:
--Each faction has its own deep lore, unlike some games of this type you will want to play each faction at least once
--Combat system is pretty fun, it does have a slight learning curve, but once understood is pretty nice. Basically instead of your units just fighting basedon strength numbers (like Civ) or changing to a pure RTS (like Total War) both sides perform a Fire Emblem/Archon turn-based battle on a grid with terrain features where placement of the forces is a huge deal in tight battles.
--Tech tree & unit progression is slightly unique for each faction and adds to the feel
--Healthy variety of victory types & quest types
--Soundtrack is cool
--The opponent AI is agressive and a challenge to beat, even on normal if you haven't learned everything you should know
--Good balance of empire management versus self-management. If it helps, I thought it had less minutia management than Civ II-IV but slightly more than Civ V or Civ BE.

Slight misses:
--The combat AI for your opponents is just ok. If you can get a slight edge, the PC AI isn't smart enough to overcome it.
--After a few games, the variety of quests can seem not enough.
--The advantage of you playing each battle versus the sim system is that you will never want to click the autobattle unless your loss is certain. That means that you'll spend 5-10 minutes mopping up stuff where you have 10 units and the opponents 1-2 weaker units a fair amount.