Episode 17

Patrick & Eric discuss favorite and less than ideal board game expansions.

Board Game Gumbo upcoming show www.facebook.com/boardgamegumbo Tuesday 10/29/19 at 9:30 EST.

Meeple Overboard sent out a tweet asking for your top 5 expansions. Their response was that they had only played one of mine - so I guess we need to talk about them here.  

Discuss Extensions vs Expansions, Expand alone (such as Ticket to Ride Europe)

Patrick:

• Power Grid: any map. More of the best game ever.
• Pandemic: On the Brink added roles & play modes.
• Ticket to Ride: USA 1910. Bigger cards & more routes
• Flash Point: Fire Rescue Urban Structures & 2nd Story. More options & characters & tokens.
• Lord of Vegas UP
• Wits and Wagers - Vegas playmat - expands  Wits & Wagers Party 

Eric:

• Marvel: Legendary -- Most of them, as the base game is FAR too easy without any of the expansion masterminds.
• Jamaica: The Crew -- Actually makes the game easier to teach as it simplifies the treasures.
• Raiders of the North Sea: Hall of Heroes -- Love the addition of the mead hall, great for adding a little extra to the game.
• Sprawlopolis: Beaches -- Love the added spatial restrictions and that it makes the city a bit bigger.
• Lords of Waterdeep: Scoundrels of Skullport -- Basically, the blueprint for how to make a good expansion. Adds interesting decisions without adding too much complexity and very little rules overhead.
• Clank -- New maps are great if you play a lot. Keeps the game from getting stale.
• Summoner Wars -- But this gets away from the true meaning of expansions, as any two factions play standalone. This is more of the serialized LCG content model.

Mixed Bag:

• Kingdomino: Age of Giants -- Like the additional scoring bonuses, meh on the actual Giants
• King of Tokyo: Power Up -- Yay, the monsters are now all unique! Boo, now some of them seem much stronger than others!
• Carcassonne: The Catapult - stupid fun
• El Grande - King and Intrigue are for experienced players only

Dislike:

• 7 Wonders: Leaders -- I don’t feel this adds enough to the game to justify the extra draft in the beginning of the game.
• Castles of Mad King Ludwig: Secrets -- I love the base game, but it doesn’t need this extra stuff. Tracking swans isn’t adding fun to the game.
• Can't Stop: Rolling down the highway - why does this need to exist?

Francis Tresham memorial