in my opinion there is no point playing anything else than twilight of arnor. it's basically the same game as dreadlords or dark avatar, just with slightly better graphics and much better ruleset:) on the other hand toa is much, much more difficult than dl or da, so if you are new to this kind of games you might want to consider playing previous 'chapters'. imo you learn how to swim in deep water quicker than in shallow, besides lower difficulties are quite easy anyway (once i got my ass handed over to me on lowest or almost lowest difficulty though).

the only reason to play previous chapters is to play the dreadlords campaign, which is playable only under dl and da ruleset - unless you get path 2.x but as far as i know it's not up for ultimate edition yet. besides campaigns are quite boring, always preferred sandbox games myself:)

Don't worry, even in Twilight arnor cakewalk don't expand their empire imediately. if there is an increase in the difficulty it's mostly noticable on the nhigher lvl's of play. Also you might wanna read up or check out the new features like the terror stars or the asteriods. There are quiet a few improvements and addons compared to the demo. It's very advance. once you get the basics down try Twilight arnor.

Latch, IMO, if you want the most bang for your bundle-buck, don't let anyone rush you through the base game and the first expansion pack. Installing all three and the latest update is a good idea, though. Just play each 'chapter' until *you* decide you've learned enough.

Unlike any other game with expansion packs I've bought, DA and TA not only add things to GalCiv2, they verge on being new releases in their own right. DA adds both extreme environment techs and a unit-based espionage system, which change game feel substantially. TA tops that with the addition of unique tech trees for each built-in civ, and it provides a way to use your spy units to gather intel on a civ without actively doing them harm, as you must do in DA if you want to learn details about a rival or enemy.

I'm not sure if some point was answered or even needed an answer so I just wanted to say that :

even if you install all 3 at once(base game + 2 expansions) you can still play each engine and set of rules separately