Getting a Feel for Expeditions (You knew this was coming!)

I'm in love. 😍

That's not much of a surprise to our regulars here in the ST gang I'm sure. And ok, it's coming from a biased opinion with Scythe being my favourite game. But to that I say... So?? 😉

There's been some games (such as Eleven: Football Manager) where I'm immediately drawn to them and know that I will end up with it in my collection. However, Expeditions (the sequel to Scythe but a standalone game) is the first time I pre-ordered something with ZERO hesitation. I immediately knew it HAD to be in my collection!!!

And as I anticipated - I'm SO HAPPY IT IS!!!!

The war has ended in the alternate 1920s Europa world of Scythe. However, in the Siberian region a meteorite has crashed into Earth and unleashed some mysterious evils with it. Dr Tarkovsky launched an expedition to learn more about what's going on. He and his team did not return. After a search party also disappeared, heroes of war decide to embark on their own expedition to uncover the mysteries, find artifacts and gain glory for their adventures.

(YES! YES! YES! I'm SO EXCITED!)

UNBOXING EXCITEMENT

I had a blast unboxing it last night. Honestly it gave me the same feeling I had unboxing Scythe when I first dove into the hobby in February 2020. Scythe made me a HUGE fan of Jakub's artwork and Expeditions puts it in the forefront to an even greater extent than Scythe does. I love the world Jakub created and I love the story lines, history, the game itself and lore that the Scythe game and expansions adds to it.

This game has SO MUCH of this beautiful, creative artwork!!!! Look at the map tiles...

All unique pieces of art in their own right. Beautiful! 😍 20-unique map tiles (if I remember right) and all with artwork of this alternate 1920s Europe. AWESOME!!!!

Then your player boards have their own unique artwork as well...

I was also really excited to see an insert that comes with the game to keep things organized in this big box... 😁

And yes, I know you see them... How about the mechs!!! 😮

Mechs in Expeditions have been taken by the heroes for the purpose of transport and movement. There are no battles in Expeditions (which makes sense because that's not why you're out there!). Each mech has a particular name and ability. For example: The Lumberjack can be seen to the far left with it's large saws on the end of each arm. While the Marsh Strider (second from the right) can move an extra space during the move action thanks to it's long legs I'm assuming. The game comes with coloured snap-on bases as well to match your player tokens which is cool as well.

To give you some perspective on their size, check them out beside Polania's mech and character from Scythe...

Even Anna and Wojtek are like "Whoa!" 😮

Something else that I actually forgot about was the rulebook. Jamey Stegmaier mentioned that his rulebooks moving foward were going to be designed so that they can be put on the table. He recognized how playing games with cumbersome rulebooks is, well, cumbersome (i.e. Blackout Hong Kong). The Expeditions rulebook is a great size. Look, I scaled it with my hand (and I don't have big hands - I'm only 5'7")...

*Behind-the-Scenes Note - This pic was taken as I was punching out components etc. These coins are set aside because my Scythe & Expeditions metal coins arrived with it!! I love that ALL coins (metal or cardboard) can be used for both Scythe and Expeditions. Very cool.

Getting to know Expeditions

In anticipation of the Scythe sequel, I had watched Rodney Smith's video and some others to get a feel for what's to come. I had some familiarity but definitely still wanted to work things out rule wise last night as I got it to the table for the first time. As usual, I played two handed to get a feel for how the game works.

It's (kind of) a table hog but obviously that will change when I learn how to run the Automa this weekend. For me, I love table hogs! And since Scythe is definitely one, it just felt right that Expeditions is too!

The map and the variability from game to game is going to be great! You can see the basecamp tile at the bottom of the map board (above my rulebook). From there, the bottom 6-tiles are the South region. You shuffle these up and place them based on the picture to the right of the basecamp. Then you do the same with the 7-Central region tiles but you keep those facedown with a map token on them, as they are yet to be explored (I love that!). Finally, you shuffle and place the remaining 7-North region tiles at the top of the map facedown with map tokens again. So cool!

The cards in the spaces (which contain MORE ARTWORK!!!) are anything from meteorite pieces (which can be melded to provide benefits later), quests to be solved, items to gain and possibly upgrade ... and I feel like I might be missing something? 🤔 I can't remember...

Gameplay (in regards to player turns) is pretty quick in Expeditions. I like when there's not alot of down time like that. Even the "longer" turns, aren't really too long which is nice.

You can see on Gunter and Nacht's player mat (red) that there are tokens with numbers on them. These are corruption tokens. After the meteorite crashed and unleashed the mysterious ancient evils it caused corruption in Siberia (naturally!). Part of your heroes journey is to vanquish corrupion in the explored regions which gets you not only glory but also VPs at the end of the game. The corruption (thankfully) has only worked it's way through the Northern and Central regions. When you discover a new region, you draw corruption from the bag of tiles. The amount of corruption is based on the number on that territory. For example, if I flip a central tile and the corruption space has a 5+, I would draw corruption tokens until they total 5 or more to place on that tile. Once I vanquish all corruption in that territory, it will unlock a new ability I can gather when my mech is there for the rest of the game.

I won't go through rules to much greater detail (especially as I still get used to them) but I can say that the use of the cards in Expeditions is great. Each card depending on it's type has 2-4 uses and really brings in the decision making of how you want to utilize the things you find! I love that.

Notice the Exosuit above has a red worker on it? There are different types of workers in Expeditions that you can deploy to gain benefits of different cards for different reasons. The Exosuit requires a soldier (red workers) to activate the on-going benefit in the bottom section of the card. You can't see it, but just above the worker the Exosuit item has an 'instant benefit' which you gain when the worker is first deployed. The bottom benefit on the card, then is an 'on-going' benefit when this card is in your active row and has a worker on it. SO COOL!!!! Even without a worker (such as my 'chaos grenade') you can still gain a benefit of power (which is the symbol on the top left of the cards). Power and Guile in Expeditions allow you to vanquish corruption - so they're both important. 😉

I mentioned Meteorite cards can be melded to create bonuses, while item cards (like the Exosuit and Chaos Grenade above) can be upgraded. When you upgrade items, their on-going benefit at the bottom of the card, now becomes available for the rest of the game! Cool! Part of the great decision making and planning in Expeditions though is that for quests, upgrades and melding you can only have a max of 4 for each. Choose wisely to give you the best outcomes!! 🤔

Final Thoughts after a two handed playthrough

I'm in love. I won't get tired of saying it. It's everything I'd hope it would be. The theme and world of Scythe is INCREDIBLY evident with this sequel. Koodos to Jamey, Jakub and team for that! Beautifully done. Scythe and fans of the game have truly been honoured with this game in my opinion, already.

I'm SO ANXIOUS to dive into the Automa and get it to the table again!!! This weekend is going to be fun at the table!!!