All about 4X games (Explore, Expand, Exploit, Exterminate)

haven't played stellaris cuz find the volume of dlc bewildering/dispiriting. usually frustrated by space 4x, which are never as terrifyingly huge as i want them to be: galciv feels flat and banal; the sins of a solar empire interface keeps repelling me. but i can still play good ol master of orion 2 (not v deep but always a joy) and (less defensibly) space empires 4, a game that looks and plays like windows 3.1 but has everything, each individual ugly element of which will require your obsessive attention every turn.