Architects Big Box and Architects: Works of Wonder Expansion are produced by Renegades Game Studio and designed by Shem Phillips and SJ MacDonald. Both of these are expansionary content to the original game, Architects of the West Kingdom by the same designers and producers.
The Architects Big Box includes a larger box and insert to organize the original base game, the Age of Artisans expansion, and the Works of Wonder Expansion. It also includes a few promotional card additions in the form of 4 adornment cards, 3 building cards, 6 apprentice cars, and 1 contribution/consequence card. The design of the insert is also capable of holding the metal coin upgrades or sleeved cards as well.
We’re a huge fan of the West Kindgom games and were very excited to explore these Architects expansions. As huge fans we already had the Paladins Big Box version, but we have to say we like this big box artwork and insert much more than the Paladins version. The artwork is brighter and love the translucent Architects name across the front. The pieces fit well including the metal coin upgrades and insert organizer holds up to the “shake it” and “upside down” tests. By design this insert and box only hold the components described above and would not fix any additional expansions.
Works of Wonder expands the original game by including new cards, additional goals and new scoring tracks. The components are 12 reward cards, 24 apprentice cards, 5 wonder cards, 24 building cards, 24 scheme cards (for solo play), 1 scheme card (for Tomesaga), 1 Influence Board, 1 Princess token, 1 Profiteer, 5 Wonder Tokens, 7 contribution/consequence cards, 1 resource markers (for solo play), 6 player markers, 6 player boards, and 3 AI player boards (for solo play).
The first expansionary piece, which we claim as our favorite, is the influence track. Much like the virtue track, influence can be a reward or a cost/loss. Certain actions or cards will require a minimum influence number, but contrary to virtue – influence seems much easier to gain. Another component of influence is the ability to use influence to pay for actions or resources instead of using money or gaining debt, thus preserving the virtue status. We feel that the addition of the influence track helps to make the virtue track less punishing or vicious if you fall behind.
The princess and the profiteer is another small but nifty addition, where rewards and costs are applied on top of the Black Market Reset potential damage. We like how they both add potential benefits to your turn by turn play OR add more strategy and risk management to your worker placement.
The third expansion we’ll highlight is the Wonders themselves! These are buildings that you can buy and add a permanent worker to a certain location, increasing your benefit for that location when you play on it. The wonders also contribute to your final victory point total.
The game + expansions works well at both 2 player games and 5 player games. The works of wonder plays well alone with the base game and in conjunction with the Age of Artisans expansion. Between the two expansions, we prefer the Works of Wonder and believe it gives the biggest boost to the base game itself. Definitely recommend!
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