@ Gizmet: They are talking of future expansion packs. These haven't been released yet so you are not missing anything. The first expansion will be free for everyone. A second expansion is free for those who bought, AND VALIDATED the game by Oct 31.
I hope no-one becomes disappointed if they bought the game in these last hours, but don't get the free xp. You need to have updated the game via Impulse in order to validate the purchase. If you updated the game in time, then you are good to go. But if you didn't, you might not qualify. I'm not sure what happens if you bought the game directly through Impulse but failed to update (seems that an Impulse purchase should suffice as a timestamp). Having to validate through downloading an update seems reasonable to me. Verifying purchases made in stores and though Amazon etc would be a challenging and time+money consuming process. I hope no-one becomes disappointed or thinks they got screwed if they failed to update in time.
I've gotten some extra weekend work these last couple weeks and was gonna buy the game before the deadline. But I decided to wait till after since I never experienced any of the early builds. I'd have liked to get the deal; but Stardock has been so totally reasonable and responsible about all this, that I didn't want to take advantage of this most awesome product support. I was gonna buy the game all along afterall. I was just waiting till I had the extra cash. Hehe I was tempted though. And I see nothing wrong with anyone else buying to beat the deadline. My decision and reasoning to wait only applies to me ;~p
