I'm sorry- but I actually don't understand all the positive reviews and can not recommend this game despite how much I like the gameplay.
The devs love small quick matches like League of Legends loves ranked, so with the way the game has been built now over time, most clans have their identity stripped to "slightly different war-chief and brewer", "slightly different research effects than normal", except for some of the more powerful clans.

Which is strange, I shouldn't be allowed to actually say, "more powerful clans", and that shouldn't be a decision factor, but it's a HUGE one. Of course, they all cost money too. I would name them for examples, but then the devs will take notes, and make those few clans just as useless as the rest.
Some are basic or get overshadowed by something stronger, and when enough people finally complain, rather than buffing the weaker clans they nerf the stronger ones. Overtime the entire game has slowly become a slog because most clans are unfun to play for one reason or another, and all of them struggle a lot more than they should throughout the game, especially at the very beginning and end game.

Speaking of, I don't even want to talk about end game- I used to have singleplayer saves go on for days, just against the max difficulty environment with the map special victory. But now, if you run any match, single or multiplayer for longer than 2 hours, the entire game starts to ♥♥♥♥ itself and quickly destabilizes, no good game should do that. Case in point: the game used to be good, and when it was this didn't happen. But now, it's slowly getting ran into the ground because I'm not sure the devs know what the community wants, and they keep pushing out content for money at the cost of bugs and server instability.

If you then think mods can save this game, guess again sadly, because judging from the fact that there are like 3 or 4 ACTUAL mods, each multiple years old, and everything else are maps, it must be extremely hard to mod, which also isn't doing this game any favors. Again, I like the gameplay, but so many blunders and strange things make it not fun.
I will say though, the DLC clans are worth it if it looks like something you're interested in, the mixed reviews / negative on most are literally just because it was buggy when first released and those reviews never got taken down, or it's people complaining about how the clan is too op or not op enough. Ignore that noise and focus on what looks like the most interesting playstyle, they all play great, but it's just not the same still, as it was years ago.

Good game just got my ass handed to me by foxes and wolves while also being raided by a bunch of other races while my people hunger even though fish was abundant. Fun game.

Grabbed this on sale. I have regrets. Really enjoyed this game at first the intro levels are just balanced enough to get you past the refund point. Graphics and sound are lovely. After the refund point has passed the game turns to garbage there is little to no choice in the game you are basically forced to play the game exactly the way they want you to for each level or you are harshly punished (i.e you will lose). There is some interesting mechanics here for the tribes etc and some great ideas about how to make game play more interesting its just implemented wrong. Each tribe has like one special building unique to them all the other buildings are the same 12 buildings for every tribe. Each tribe has a couple of unique skills that you pretty much must use or you will lose. Focus seems to be more on multiplayer and rankings with very strong focus on needing to buy one of the many DLC clans to get ahead in the multiplayer or rankings. Having played RTS for decades this has sadly dissapointed me after such a promising start. I would not recommend this to anyone as a RTS unless they love Multiplayer games and love paying for DLC that should have been in the game in the first place as part of the release or added later to the game for free. Would refund it if I could however as mentioned they very cleverly made it good enough to get past the 2 hours before you notice how bad it truly is as a game.