As much as I was tempted to, I decided not to buy CIG and HATG even when the steam sale dropped them to around $5 each. During my pre-order for the pirates culture pack, I told myself that if this disappointed me, I would not support future dlcs anymore until such negative practices stop. Intentionally keeping certain factions like the Averni and Carthage with very limited rosters so you have to get the two dlcs for their extra units made me very angry. I don't care if these were minor factions, but that's not the case in the main campaign.
As it turned out, the unit rosters for the pirates pack were extremely limited and the given units were very disappointing. Of course, there are mods, but such laziness has gone on for way too long. I could go on but there's no point as I'm sure everyone had their share of disappointments.
I really hope that for the sake of the fans, any future dlcs will be really worth the price and not just sold at a sale without adding any value. I'd rather pay more for a good product than get a cheap deal for one that's a lazy attempt to squeeze those few extra dollars from you.
Back on topic, I don't want more factions taken out of the main campaign to become dlcs. Dlcs should give a different experience like maybe alternative missions with different rewards depending on which you choose. Or the ability to share resources with allies to recruit special units not otherwise available through normal recruitment. However, the big issue here is how much should go into the dlc? If the dlc cannibalizes good gameplay designs that should have been in the main game, then I don't think it's worth getting.
[This message has been edited by Genghis_Khan1 (edited 06-28-2014 @ 02:06 PM).]