I very much disagree about Old World - the dlcs are limited and sensible. There are two that are nice to have once you're sure you like the game enough to be playing it for a while: the 'sacred and profane'and the 'behind the throne' ones, as they expand the game mechanically a bit and flesh out the events. The rest are entirely optional (a new civ here, a few new wonders there, a scenario pack) and more of a supporter's pack.
The game is the best 4x I've ever played, hands down.
But you have to accept the limitations it imposes: you can't settle a city anywhere, the map has edges, you never get past the antiquity.
What's there, though, is stellar. The orders system by itself is brilliant, as each turn there's always more that needs to be done than you can handle, and you have to prioritise all the time while taking risks trying to make your dynasty more famous (to expand the orders pool).
The AI is ruthless in combat and sensible in diplomacy. You have to accept you'll be losing troops, and can't win a war with one levelled up warrior and an archer.
There's also plenty of little annoyances from other 4x games that got solved with simple design choices - like having an undo button, or wonders being locked down upon starting construction (no more building the pyramids for 20 turns only for them to be cancelled because the Zulus got there first).
And it all oozes personality thanks to the limited scope and the ck style characters and events.
You generally get the sense that the game was thoughtfully designed by people who understand the genre, instead of just slapping a reskin on Civilisation with one or two arbitrary changes to the mechanics.