One of my favorite games of all time is Scythe from the team at Stonemaier Games. Today I want to take a look at the sequel to that game in a new style and new look but with pieces of similar world design and aspects that will be familiar to those who love the original. Let’s dive in and explore together!
Expeditions is published by Stonemaier Games with design by Jamey Stegmaier and art by Jakub Rozalski. It plays 1-5 players in 60-90 mins.
Overview:
In Expeditions players will compete to build their engine through card-driven play. Gaining power and guile, using workers, moving mechs and using the powers of the cards in play will help you collect glory and money to be the ultimate winner.
Gameplay:
To begin the game players will each take a mech, mat, starting character and companion and tokens for their mat. The mechs and mats along with the character and companion are given at random giving you asymmetric choices that can differ with each game.
Players will alternate clockwise around the table taking turns until the end-game condition is met. A turn begins with moving your action token to cover one of three choices, making the other two available this round or moving to a refresh turn where you can place all your workers back to your mat and return active cards to your hand.
The three actions players can take are MOVE, PLAY, GATHER. Let’s take a look at each one and how they work in the game.
Move. Move allows players to take their Mech and move it 1-3 spaces to an unoccupied location within that range. Landing on that spot can allow you take actions on the new space.
Play. You may take one card from your hand (left side of your mech mat) and move it to the right side of the mat making it a played card. If you place a specific worker that matches the one on the card you gain the special ability.
Gather. Gain the exposed benefits of the location your mech is currently at.
Each action can take place in whatever order you would like. If you use your turn as a refresh action the next time it is your turn you will do all three actions.
The game will continue around with players gaining and playing cards, taking actions that will allow them to place a glory token on the basecamp. When a player takes an action that allows them to place their fourth star each player including them will take one more turn. Scoring is completed by the value of their glory tokens based on the quests they solved, coins collected, upgraded item points and corruption tokens collected. The player with the most money wins!
Impressions:
There is a lean many of you may feel towards playing this game if you already own and enjoy Scythe and I want to say that is warranted and you will likely not be disappointed. But if you are looking for a game that is very similar to Scythe you will not find that here-and that’s a good thing for the game. I don’t want to make that seem like a knock on Expeditions but instead it is one of its best strengths that it stands so well on its own as a unique game.
One of my favorite parts of Expeditions is the part you won’t find in the original version of Scythe: the card management. This is one mechanic I just can’t get enough of ever. Games like Terraforming Mars Ares Expedition, Ark Nova and Earth are high on my list because of the sheer amount of cards you get and try to find ways to get them to work together. Expeditions does that as well and I love it. The cards all have a rhythm that can play off of each other and how they interact with the workers and the order things are played matters. You can see the patterns the more you play and learn how to best play them in order.
One of the similarities that is different enough in the way the game moves and ultimately scores are the way stars are placed. In Scythe it can be easy to spam a few stars at once near the end and rush the endgame before players realize it has happened. Here in Expeditions you can have everything you need to meet placement of a star but you then must move to a location that allows you to place one on the board, thus keeping the game a little bit more controlled on time. I like this even though the speed of Scythe end-game is a favorite move of mine as well.
The players we have sat down and played Expeditions with have all played Scythe as well which is part of the draw into the game to begin for all of them. There were things they liked and things they expected but overall they enjoyed the experience. Mostly they found the push and pull of exploration around the board to be harder the more players you have as you might have to make other plans when another player is on the hex you need. I really enjoyed this at the 3 person count the most and found it tight but less restrictive.
The one negative feelings/limitation we have felt playing this game is that it is not quick and definitely takes some time to explore around the board and make the moves you need to do for the game to end. It’s not a bad thing per se but it is something you need to be aware of when you get into this one.
Overall this game is solid and everything I didn’t know I wanted in a sequel to Scythe. The gameplay is different enough to experience something new-the exploration of the tiles and the card management both feel great and new to this game world while still giving you vibes of the original to feel like you can sink into the familiar. It is one I have thought about the next day, wondering how I would play something differently or change a move and that to me is usually a good sign of a game that I am going to continue to explore and enjoy in the future.
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