When I was first introduced to "serious" boardgaming via The Settlers of Catan, I was already a longtime Magic: the Gathering player, so it was somewhat of a natural segue - these games still rewarded skill, but my wife and friends would play them too! Furthermore, I wouldn't be blowing so much extra cash chasing down rare cards....
Unfortunately, that last part isn't entirely true. The expansion craze is over here, too. It's almost a sure bet that a successful game means some sort of expansion or spinoff, sometimes excessively so. However, sometimes the expansions can make a good game great, or make a mediocre game at least good. Here are five expansions you should own if you have the original games:
5.) Dixit 2. Although it sounds like a "sequel," Dixit 2 is actually 84 more cards for the original Dixit - just as many as the original! Dixit is a fantastic, creative party game, and I've yet to teach it to anyone who didn't like it. However, the original deck is a little small, and inside jokes can become automatic when you've only got a small amount of cards that you riffle through every game. This expansion literally doubles the re-playability of the original game, and includes artwork just as incredible as the originals. Though no rules are included, you could theoretically play Dixit 2 alone, but that would be even more dumb than playing the original alone now: they're so much better together.
4.) Carcassonne: Inns & Cathedrals. Keep in mind that Carcassonne has been around for about a decade now, and it's got a lot of expansions, most of which are crap. This is the original expansion, first just released under the name "Carcassonne Expansion." Maybe they thought they wouldn't print more, or maybe they realized that this is the expansion for the base game. An expansion should breathe new life into a game and offer new strategies without fundamentally altering the gameplay. It should still feel like the same game. Many of the other Carcassonne expansions fail in this regard, but that's where Inns & Cathedrals shines. The 18 tiles bring the base game closer to a respectable game length, which means you get more turns to make more decisions with larger numbers of players. The new "rules" in this expansion, for the actual inns and cathedrals as well as the mega-meeple, are ridiculously simple and yet open up whole new areas of strategy that were non-existent in the original. Roads become worthwhile, and when to gamble on the use of your mega-meeple becomes extremely interesting. As a nice bonus, there are meeples for a sixth player and tiles to keep track of how many times you've been around the scoring track. I'm much more suspect of the rest of the expansions for this game, even the much-lauded Traders & Builders, but this one should really be packaged as part of the base set because it is that important.
3.) Roll Through the Ages: The Late Bronze Age. After our first few games of Roll Through the Ages: The Bronze Age, my wife said something along the lines of "That's it? I was just getting started!" each time we played, and I felt the same way. The Late Bronze Age not only fixes that, but revises some of the development values and gameplay of the original game, while adding new options at the lowest price point possible for an expansion - free! You can download these new score sheets for free at rollthroughtheages.com. You have no excuse. If you felt like this game left you a bit wanting, you owe it to yourself to give the expansion rules a try.
2.) Ticket to Ride: USA 1910. After a few plays of the original Ticket to Ride, you will soon find yourself not only memorizing the ticket deck, but realizing that the only winning strategy is to make six-length routes from coast to coast so that you can score those giant 15-20 point tickets, and make a run for longest route while you're at it. This makes for some seriously boring gameplay. 1910 manages to change all that with an elegantly simple expansion, consisting only of more tickets, some rules, and a new bonus card (15 points for most completed tickets). The bonus card makes short runs more appealing, and the new tickets make for some interesting routes and hit many of the cities completely ignored on the original tickets (Las Vegas, Washington, etc) and the rules included three new ways to mix the tickets and the bonus cards. As a nice bonus, the expansion also includes a regular-size train card deck, so you don't have to shuffle those ridiculous tiny cards anymore. When you realize just how closed the strategic options in the original Ticket to Ride really are, you should give this expansion a whirl.
1.) Dominion: Prosperity. This game is just now hitting shelves "full time" although I first acquired my copy at GenCon. Although the first three expansions for Dominion give more options, they do so in a very confined way and don't make a strong case for new strategies. With Prosperity, the designers have finally caught on to what has made Magic so endlessly re-playable: breaking the rules! Now we have new basic cards, kingdom cards that are purely treasures, cards that cost 7, victory points outside of the deck, cards that depend on our opponents' understanding of the game state... This expansion blows the game wide-open, breathing new life in a game that was getting stale fast with the rush of more-of-the-same expansions. If you liked Dominion, but feel like you've "figured it out," you need this expansion.
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