Are there certain areas that are more enjoyable to play than others? If one were to acquire the game, (as planned), at some point, are there locations that involve more fun? I know some of starting areas, like Ireland, and a couple others for beginners based on reading Let's Play, but are there characters to work with only after you have several games under one's belt?

Does the best starting areas/characters change with the DLCs? Other than Ruler Designer, are there certain DLCs worth getting before actually having ever played the vanilla game?