It's just really good.
I know this sounds weird, but it's actually more "approachable" or "relateable" than Planetfall, because you have this in-built lore understanding of necromancy, fire and frost magic, etc.
While Planetfall was a bit too random in its themes and races.

The UI is also vastly better than Planetfall, everything is in logical sensible places, where you expect them. Clearly defined themed menus for each feature. No random scatter of on-screen clutter nonstop.
They've gone so far with the polish that, little things are thought of, like combat unit icons fading out during an attack so they dont clutter the view, and going semi-transparent when a unit isnt movable.

As a huge fan of Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic, i cant avoid mentioning that this game, right now, does NOT have the Shadow Realm map layer. It does however have the underground layer, and it does have quite a few interesting weird shadow / chaos enemy types.

It has a huge, and i mean huge, variety of spells and summons.
Every few researches you do (which is a randomized choice in the style of Master of Orion), lets you unlock a new Tome of magic instead, which is a book containing new unit types, combat spells, overworld spells, enchantments (that permanently change your entire race's appearance) and unique buildings and modifiers empire-wide.

I havent counted, but its approaching 60'ish such Tomes.
Tier's 1 to 5, of around a dozen magic schools.
So yeah, there's an absolute ton of content.

Same goes for creating your race / ruler. There's no fixed "Human Knights" race or "Dwarf industrialists". you assemble the race specifically each time.
You pick the baseline race, of which there are a dozen or so.
Then you pick the origins (medieval, high, dark, barbarian, ethereal etc).
Then you pick the starting magic affinities that further shape the race (not just in stats, also visually and feature-wise).

There's way more customization than we're used to nowadays.
I expected 5-6 races, but there's around double.
Basically there's always twice as much "stuff" as you expect of a game these days.
They clearly left this one in the oven for a while.

EVEN THOUGH there were crash bugs on day one (for those of us with 3000 series nvidia cards).
But they are now resolved 99% with the patch. I havent crashed since.

No preformance issues.
No load times, getting into the actual savegame takes 3 seconds.
No micro stutters.

It's all just a nice experience and the hours fly by.
Furthermore, the diplomacy system is somewhat well thought out too, with pseudo-casus belli and grievances systems, allies that ACTUALLY STAY ALLIES (unlike 90% of these games where they always randomly go psycho and declare war because "challenge").
And a Free Cities mechanic very similar to Civ5's system of vassalising independent city states.

With lots of small things in tomes of magic books or other mechanics that tie into all of this.
You could in theory even build your empire to focus entirely on buffing vassalised free cities, and using their weekly recruitment drives to sustain your main army, without building many units yourself.

Just tons and tons of variety and player-agency.
Excellent game.
I'd almost say, it might be as good as Endless Legend, because this game also has a provincial "district" system (i just love building stuff on the tiles around your ciites).
And did i forget to mention the unique province buildings you get from tomes as well?
How about a huge magical tower that sucks in life energy around all adjacent mana crystals, leading to sprawling Humankind-style "i gotta fit these here so this thing has optimal bonuses" tetris on the province level.

It's great.
Stop reading.

It's just really good. I know this sounds weird, but it's actually more "approachable" or "relateable" than Planetfall, because you have this in-built lore understanding of necromancy, fire and frost magic, etc. While Planetfall was a bit too random in its themes and races. The UI is also vastly better than Planetfall, everything is in logical sensible places, where you expect them. Clearly defined themed menus for each feature. No random scatter of on-screen clutter nonstop. They've gone so far with the polish that, little things are thought of, like combat unit icons fading out during an attack so they dont clutter the view, and going semi-transparent when a unit isnt movable. As a huge fan of Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic, i cant avoid mentioning that this game, right now, does NOT have the Shadow Realm map layer. It does however have the underground layer, and it does have quite a few interesting weird shadow / chaos enemy types. It has a huge, and i mean huge, variety of spells and summons. Every few researches you do (which is a randomized choice in the style of Master of Orion), lets you unlock a new Tome of magic instead, which is a book containing new unit types, combat spells, overworld spells, enchantments (that permanently change your entire race's appearance) and unique buildings and modifiers empire-wide. I havent counted, but its approaching 60'ish such Tomes. Tier's 1 to 5, of around a dozen magic schools. So yeah, there's an absolute ton of content. Same goes for creating your race / ruler. There's no fixed "Human Knights" race or "Dwarf industrialists". you assemble the race specifically each time. You pick the baseline race, of which there are a dozen or so. Then you pick the origins (medieval, high, dark, barbarian, ethereal etc). Then you pick the starting magic affinities that further shape the race (not just in stats, also visually and feature-wise). There's way more customization than we're used to nowadays. I expected 5-6 races, but there's around double. Basically there's always twice as much "stuff" as you expect of a game these days. They clearly left this one in the oven for a while. EVEN THOUGH there were crash bugs on day one (for those of us with 3000 series nvidia cards). But they are now resolved 99% with the patch. I havent crashed since. No preformance issues. No load times, getting into the actual savegame takes 3 seconds. No micro stutters. It's all just a nice experience and the hours fly by. Furthermore, the diplomacy system is somewhat well thought out too, with pseudo-casus belli and grievances systems, allies that ACTUALLY STAY ALLIES (unlike 90% of these games where they always randomly go psycho and declare war because "challenge"). And a Free Cities mechanic very similar to Civ5's system of vassalising independent city states. With lots of small things in tomes of magic books or other mechanics that tie into all of this. You could in theory even build your empire to focus entirely on buffing vassalised free cities, and using their weekly recruitment drives to sustain your main army, without building many units yourself. Just tons and tons of variety and player-agency. Excellent game. I'd almost say, it might be as good as Endless Legend, because this game also has a provincial "district" system (i just love building stuff on the tiles around your ciites). And did i forget to mention the unique province buildings you get from tomes as well? How about a huge magical tower that sucks in life energy around all adjacent mana crystals, leading to sprawling Humankind-style "i gotta fit these here so this thing has optimal bonuses" tetris on the province level. It's great. Stop reading.