Flashpoint doesn’t offer anything transformative, the way XCOM 2’s War of the Chosen expansion did. Dedicated BattleTech players will want to give this a look, but with as many options as we have now for interesting strategy experiences, everyone else can consider this addition as highly optional.

Battlestar Galactica Deadlock is a pretty special game. Not only is it a great experience for fans of the show, but for tactics fiends looking to get their starship combat on, Black Lab Games have been honing and expanding the title since launch in August of last year. They've just released a new expansion, and it’s a belter.

In the end, Green Planet and Project Laika are interesting DLCs. Taken together, they add several gameplay and cosmetic features, and the former significantly alter playstyles if you decide to go for the terraforming. While Project Laika is cute and fits the game’s overall “feel good” vibe, I do feel Surviving Mars is consistently stripping away its identity with each of its main DLCs. Regardless, if you enjoy or the game or want to try turning a barren planet into a giant planet-wide forest, give Green Planet a shot.

An additive DLC that adds a new overpowered race, endgame crisis, and a new game mode, but doesn't affect the actual underlying gameplay flow in any meaningful way.

Truthfully, I was pleasantly surprised by Ancient Relics. It adds a noticeable amount of content especially to the late-early and mid-game, building up on Distant Stars’ ridiculous number of scientific events to prevent the game from drying up. If you like the idea of uncovering alien mysteries or just wants more story things to do in Stellaris, Ancient Relics is definitely worth a look.

Despite its short-comings, Sanctus Reach is one of the best turn-based strategy games around.

The DLC promises six hours-ish of gameplay, and my experience matches that comfortably. If you’re a multiplayer gamer, I’d probably pass, but that’s not the fault of the DLC. If you are looking for a decent story, reminiscent of the good old days of narrative campaigns in the style of Age of Empires II, I think it’s worth your time – just try not to think too deeply – lest you begin to spot some gaps.

All in all, Chaos Space Marines is a good DLC for *inhales* Warhammer 40,000: Gladius - Relics of War. It provides a good roster of units, a bunch of fitting mechanics and abilities, as well as some flavorful writing. Heck, the buildings that fill the CSM cities are carbon copies of the structures you built in Dawn of War 1! Aside from the Slaaneshi descriptions and the bug I mentioned, it has no other flaws and is well worth your time. Now, if only they fixed the AI that likes to spawn Imperial Guard Hydras almost to the exclusion of anything else…

With everything from a Daemon-possessed Dreadlord to a Regiment of Renown mortar that has airburst poison shells, this DLC is surprisingly interesting. I'm definitely not a Dark Elf nor Skaven fan, but the new mechanics are good enough to keep me engaged for the duration and make me seriously consider a replay. Warhammer 2's latest DLCs have often been way more 'hit' than 'miss', and The Shadow & The Blade is no exception.

It’s been a while since we felt we could say this, but if you buy Emperor on day one you (probably) won’t be disappointed. Obviously if you don’t usually play HRE YMMV but for those that do enjoy mucking around in central Europe, it’s been given a breath of new life and well worth your money.

If you care about the British Isles, this Immersion Pack gives them a lot more flavour than the free changes alone can offer. Like most DLCs of this tier, this is far from essential.

For me, there's really no question on whether to buy this or not. Doing a complete overhaul of the population mechanics, adding in trade as an important system, allowing you access to being megacorporations or mega-cults, throwing in a little slave trade while you're at it? For $20 US, it's a solid purchase.

Space Race as an expansion is worth checking out at some point, but I wouldn’t be in any hurry. It ultimately does little to solve many of the deep-rooted problems the game still has at the mid-to-late stages. It does make the early-game a little easier, or at the very least more varied (depends on your settings), and there’s definitely some interesting stuff there. Surviving Mars still has a fair ways to go though, and it’s going to take more than small injections of personality to carry it over that hump.

Warhammer 40K Gladius’ Tyranids DLC is the best piece of game content concerning my least favorite race I’ve seen in a while. They play well and feel authentic, which I imagine was no easy feat, and they slot into the overall narrative and structure of the game more seamlessly than I was expecting. They could have been a bit more creative, perhaps, with the use of instinctual behaviors, but it’s a great effort, none the less.

In a situation where you have all of it, HF is going to truly shine, pulling together parts from four or five different DLC and using them together. If you don't have at least one of Sword of Islam or Rajas of India (and preferably both), you are going to run into a significant amount of frustration, especially in randomized worlds.

In the end, Revelations is a fairly modest DLC. It’s no small thing to add in an entire new race and units to go by, but you also wouldn’t be completely wrong in thinking it was a fairly light expansion. Still, it’s purpose is to flesh out existing game content in ways that are meaningful and worthwhile, and in that sense it succeeds pretty well without over-complicating the scope. A quick shout out must also go towards the free patch that came with the game, which included a lot of quality of life features including ways to make navigating around large empires much easier. All in all, a pretty decent first DLC outing, and one that should be seriously considered for anyone who’s been enjoying Planetfall up till now.

Urban Warfare has been a welcome opportunity for me to fire BattleTech back up, and I've been generally delighted to see how far the game has come over the past year. It's a game that I liked quite a bit off the bat, and now a good number of the rough edges have been sanded off, or at least been supplemented with ways around them. My recommendation, then, is to fire up a new campaign and see what's new. Knock the rust off those gargantuan metal legs and get a feeling of whether a stroll through the city would do you some good.

Deadlock was already one of Slitherine’s best games -- if not the best one -- boasting a more interesting gameplay and beautiful space engagements and replays that are quite welcoming to newcomers and have the potential to appeal to a slightly less niche market. With Resurrection -- a DLC that adds a new campaign, new ships, and further capitalises on Battlestar Galactica’s signature ship -- Deadlock just became even better.

When it comes to worth, Gathering Storm is fun, but hard to justify its full paying price of nearly £35. Unlike Rise and Fall’s multiple game changes involving timelines, eras, and mandates -- which effectively turn the game from a “live in the moment” endeavour to a proper long-term tailoring experience -- this new expansions mostly gives you more things to react to. Truth is, without Rise and Fall, Civ VI is still a worse game than Civ V, and with Gathering Storm alone, it’s not even in the same league at all.

Ultimately, Distant Stars is an interesting expansion that expands the game’s content without pushing any boundaries. It doesn’t increase the game’s scope but given how bare the current mid-game is and the sheer number of new anomalies added in the DLC, it is hard to pass this up.

The Broken Alliance expansion is an important one. It is to Deadlock as Brood War was to Starcraft; interesting unit additions and thoughtful writing elevate a dry but highly competent base game. Essential for Deadlock fans, and compelling for the curious. So say we all.

All in all, Total War: Three Kingdoms - The Furious Wild expansion was a better experiment than I expected it to be. I am never particularly excited about animal or nature-focused factions -- Air Force boy here -- but this DLC features such an interesting mix of units and mechanics that washed the bad taste of Troy away from my most recent TW palate. From angry kings with axes and fire-wielding melee units to giant elephants and devastating shock-heavy tiger units, The Furious Wild brings the full breadth of nature to bear on the Three Kingdoms period -- and China is better for it.

Federations is one of the best expansions for Stellaris that we’ve seen and the impact is going to be felt for the rest of the life of the game, which being supported by Paradox means many years to come.

Somehow, Creative Assembly managed to completely understand and encapsulate what each race is, and add interesting and fitting game mechanics that reward you for playing as they should. The Prophet and The Warlock is a surprising addition to anyone interested in the Skaven or Lizardmen, and it should definitely be given a shot.

Overall, Retribution is a capable expansion for fans of the franchise, bringing in new gameplay options and two specialist races to round off an already well-developed roster. The expansion will not change the mind of anyone who already likes or dislikes the series, but it’s worth a shot if you like the game. GalCiv III might not have taken off the way Stardock intended, but the company’s decision to stick with it turned the game into a tailored experience virtually unmatched by any other sci-fi 4X on the market.

In summary, Warriors of the North is a successful expansion to Battle Brothers in that it is strictly adding on additional options without disrupting the core gameplay in a significant way. Personal taste aside, it’s hard to argue that isn’t what an expansion should be doing at a base level. Just note that outside of some unique Barbarian flavor or Cultists shenanigans, this isn’t offering any fundamental changes to how you are going to play Battle Brothers once the reality of the scenario’s difficulty sets in. For you diehards out there, rejoice in your newfound glory! For those looking to see a little more variance, your mileage may vary depending on what starting scenarios pique your interest.

As a whole, The Warden & The Paunch is another sizable DLC that should please if you are interested in the general theme, even if the execution is a bit lopsided. While I loved the High Elves part, honestly, I don’t get why people like Greenskins -- they are base creatures governed only by impulse, whose sole interest rests in anarchy and food. Compared to Yvresse’s military and cultural upgrades, done by the development of the region and the increase of its magical power, Grom’s faction is boosted by a simple food crafting menu, which is vastly less interesting than the already basic Athel Tamarha interface. Still, if you like at least one of the factions in the Lord Pack and want to give the (awesomely voiced) Warden of Tor Yvresse or the Paunch of Badlads a go, you surely won’t be disappointed.

After Anabasis cleverly effected the Second Cylon War via the original's setting, Sin & Sacrifice might seem somewhat conservative. However, Black Lab Games continue their tradition of tight, tactical mission design, and as a farewell to this chapter of the First Cylon War, it's a solid one.

All in all, the Tactical Legacy Pack is a surprisingly good addition to the base game, providing smaller portions of XCOM that manage to be enticing and engaging even without the strategy layer. It is not a replacement to the main campaign in anyway whatsoever, but the deeply tactical battles and powerful squads should provide plenty of fun for any players looking for just a little bit more XCOM.

If you enjoy playing in the Iberian Peninsula and you can overlook a few historical irregularities, then it would be very hard to pass up on Golden Century. If you're obsessed by pirates and can't fight off the desire to pretend to be Jack Sparrow, then this is going to be your best bet within EU4. If you're literally anyone else: While it's only $10 USD, it's not really vital to your experience and doesn't actually bring that much to the table. You might just want to wait until the next actual expansion and pick this one up on sale.