Expeditions Board Game Review
Disclaimer: Wingsplain received a free review copy of the standard edition of Expeditions. We thank Stonemaier Games for this generous opportunity.
The Theme of Expeditions
Expeditions takes place in the same world as Scythe which has an alternate world history set in the 1920s. The events portrayed in Scythe have faded into legend and a massive meteorite has crashed to the earth, drawing everyone’s attention. Corruption spreads across the land and strange parasites begin to take control of local wildlife. Expeditions are launched to investigate the meteor and achieve dreams of glory. Some expeditions never return…
I’ve played a few games of Scythe digital but I have not played the physical board game. I don’t have a lot of experience with the theme or the story of Scythe and I don’t feel like I’m bringing any type of preconceived notions coming into Expeditions. I think this helps me see Expeditions for what it is based on its own merit and not how it may or may not compare to Scythe.
During our first play through, my wife and I were captivated by the mysteries emerging from the gameplay and the cards. Who are these people and what is going on out here? What’s that next location? Wow, there’s the 20 corruption tile! What’s the deal with the meteorites? Some of this stuff seems creepy!
Personally, I was surprised that my wife was getting interested in the theme. She’s not really a serious board gamer and I wouldn’t guess that Expeditions’ Siberian steampunk theme is something that would capture her interest, but it did. She’s usually interested in time travel or Victorian themed stories.
After my wife and I played, some time passed before I was able to get Expeditions to the table again. When I introduced the game to my gaming group during one of our rare get togethers, one of the newer members (new to board games) asked, “Is this like steam punk?” I told him that it was. One of my friends sarcastically quipped, “No! Its Diesel Punk!”
After that brief interaction, none of the five players (all guys) talked about the theme. I needed a brush up on the rules and the other four players at the table had never played before so we were pretty focused on the rule book. Our conversations were purely about playing the game. This was an interesting contrast to the session that my wife and I had where there was a lot of discussion about what was actually happening in the world, not just what was happening on the table.
The Components of Expeditions
Opening the box and digging through the components I caught myself saying, “Wow.” The artwork and the components look great. The artwork on the cardboard was striking and the card backs made me want to immediately crack into them and check them out.
Here are some quick bullet points about the components in Expeditions:
- I like the pull out component tray. This is something I noted and liked with Apiary.
- The plain grey plastic mechs are the obvious contrast to the rest of the components. You can upgrade these to metal mechs with the Ironclad Edition of the game.
- Something about the cardboard components just feels substantial. Its high quality and just feels “present,” for lack of a better term.
- The guile/power tokens are a bit too big for the track on the player mats. This can be a bit annoying when your Guile and Power wind up at the same value.
- Some text and iconography are painfully small. You really need to pay attention to detail when looking at Solve costs on quests and reading card powers.
The rulebook looks great and is of that same textured material that I like and have come to expect from Stonemaier Games. Quickly glancing through the rules I thought it looked like it might be easier to learn. We discovered in practice though that there was some ambiguity to each of the actions which required more reading time. One example would be when we discovered that you needed to play a card which allowed you to take the Vanquish or Solve actions.
I thought it odd that these actions rolled up under the Play Action in the rule book. Eventually I realized that it was like that because using the Play Action lets you play cards that trigger a Solve or Vanquish. Our first play through was a little clunky but I felt like we had everything down by our second game.
One of the people in my gaming group, Richard, is an experienced board gamer who has taught his large family how to play many different games. In our five player session of Expeditions, he fulfilled this role as well. I hadn’t shared my thoughts about the rulebook with him before we played. After we played, I asked him his opinion on the rulebook and this is what he had to say:
“The rulebook definitely needed a couple more pages, just to be able to structure it better to learn what you need to know. Things like “The color of a card is the color of the worker at the bottom” is in one easy to miss place. A rule I didn’t even see until we were done is that Vanquish says that you deal with the top tile, but you can then go on to do the next tile as part of the same Vanquish action.
The rule is there (and is actually in bold), but the wording of the first part is clunky and makes it easy to miss that part. Something like “You can Vanquish any number of tiles, but they must be done in order from top to bottom,” would have been better.
They needed a lot more visual breakdowns — including that the color of a card is defined by the color of the worker in a card diagram. [They should be] highlighting which parts of a Quest are the requirements and which are the rewards (not that we had much trouble sorting that out, but even though they put the picture of the Quest in the book, they relied on text description, rather than using the photo to point it out).
[They should be] using pictures of a card that tells you to “Solve” and another to “Vanquish,” so that it makes sense that those are under the “Play” heading. [They should use] pictures of tiles with “Meld,” “Upgrade,” and “Boast,” so that it’s clear that those are all part of Gathering. These things are all in the rulebook, but it’s not clear why they’re where they are until you’re actually playing the game, or maybe halfway through.”
Where Does Expeditions Fit Into Your Collection?
I don’t really know how to describe Expeditions. Its a little bit Worker Placement and a little bit Engine Building. There’s a bit of exploration but that gets exhausted quickly. There are much more robust Worker Placement and Engine Building games out there that will scratch those itches much more thoroughly than Expeditions.
This might be a good gateway game into modern board gaming for young people or teenagers who are interested in more complexity than things like Monopoly or Uno. Experienced board game players are probably looking for something deeper. The theme and aesthetic, while interesting, will probably appeal the most to existing Scythe fans or those who want a lighter Sci-Fi experience.
Are Expeditions Factions Balanced?
The factions seem fairly balanced against each other but Odin’s Wrath did feel too powerful in a two player game where there were plenty of maps to gobble up. In a five player game it isn’t an issue keeping Odin’s Wrath in check as the maps are being spread around a lot more.
Player Count Matters In Expeditions
The five player game I played took over four hours to complete. Four people were playing Expeditions for the first time. Two of those players are new to modern board games. One of those new players felt like the game was “a lot to take in.”
Another person in the group, Doug, also an experienced board gamer, had this to say:
“The game, at least the version we played, doesn’t feel built to handle five players. Especially with multiple new players. There’s not enough resources out there, especially if you were to happen to draw a low corruption tile game, to not have everyone shooting for multiple of the 4x boasts, which are the most time consuming to complete.
[The] game was four plus hours, but I felt like the last 90 minutes was waiting for Richard to win. Even if he didn’t get the fourth boast, he’d have lost 16 points. With a 16 point boost on my end, or a couple others, I don’t think I caught him (and I wouldn’t have necessarily been +16 [points]).”
Unlike Doug, I didn’t feel like the game took that long. I was surprised to learn afterward that our session had dragged on like that. I guess that’s a sign that I was interested and engaged throughout my experience although I did suffer frustration in the closing turns of the game when I was frequently blocked from completing quests and placing my last star which made me feel like I was getting robbed.
For reference, Richard won with a score in the low 70s, I was second with a score in the low 50’s, and Doug was third with a score in the high 30s.
The Cost of Expeditions
At the time of this writing, Expeditions is on sale for $69.00 USD directly from Stonemaier Games. It is normally $85 USD. As usual, Stonemaier Champions receive a 20% discount on all purchases.
At $85 USD I don’t feel like the game delivers on its price point. While the game looks great and it has a high production quality, I don’t feel like the depth of its gameplay experience warrants the price.
The $115 USD Ironclad Edition which has metal mechs (instead of plastic) seems tailor made for Scythe superfans who may also enjoy painting miniatures. I can’t foresee anyone else wanting to pay that much for a medium weight game that rests on the scale closer to light weight than heavy weight, in my opinion. This edition also comes with silicon base snaps (instead of plastic), and an individually numbered box with foil lettering. Everything else is the same as the standard edition of Expeditions.
What Do I Think About Expeditions?
Expeditions doesn’t feel like a terribly complex game but there are a lot of moving parts. I guess that’s a good description of a medium weight game. I found that the biggest challenges come when you need to devise a back up plan when someone blocks the spaces you need access to.
That’s my biggest sticking point with this game. Players blocking each other from the spaces they need to complete their game plan. Whether its early game worker blocking or late game Boast blocking, it feels bad when it happens, especially if you think you’re about to win. No one is doing it on purpose but it can feel like the game is being stolen from you.
This gets increasingly frustrating at higher player counts as you near the end of the game where everyone is focusing on very specific things in order to achieve their goals. This pseudo mini game of “bumper cars” will be a king maker from time to time, as some critical blocks could keep you from sealing the game and allowing another player to pull ahead.
Even with just two players I found that blocking was an annoyance because the game funnels all players into Boasting to place their stars and end the game. This forces the second player to potentially spend an additional turn of travel time to get to another Boast location.
Replayability feels like an issue. Once you’ve flipped over all the tiles, you will become familiar with what they are and know what is hidden in all three regions of the map. Each specific location will have a random position in its region, but you always know what few tiles exist after many plays. Choosing between five factions each game could also get stale after a lot of plays. New factions, new location tiles, and new regions seem like easy wins for an expansion. They almost feel a bit mandatory if you’re going to play this game a lot.
Conversely, the large deck of cards seems like it will always provide some interesting and new options play after play. The number of players you regularly play with will modify these experiences though. Higher player counts will explore the limited tiles far more frequently and put a bigger dent in the deck of cards than the two player experience will over the long term.
Expeditions can feel like its overstaying its welcome as you try to end the game but can’t. This is because you are forced into cycling through your actions (Move, Play, Gather) and choosing one that you can’t perform each turn. The game will force you into suboptimal play patterns and all you want to do is Boast in order to place your stars. The person who is the most effective at managing their end game stuttering and dodging blocking players will probably come out on top.
Expeditions will probably resonate the most with Scythe fans who want to continue to explore this world and feel Scythe’s light influence on this standalone sequel game. Experienced board game players who aren’t already invested in this world may find the play experience a bit lacking and not worth the price of admission.
Thank you for reading our Expeditions Board Game Review. If you would like to read our other reviews, please check out our Reviews Page.
