How many of you back a Kickstarter and opt for the ‘give me everything!’ pledge level? How many of you buy a new game, play it once, then go and order all of the expansions?
I feel like an outsider when it comes to expansions, because on the whole they just add stress to my life. Don’t get me wrong, I love it when an expansion adds something amazing to a game I already love, but most of the time they’re a ballache to me.
An example - A few weeks ago I had one of my usual meet-ups with my local games group. I brought my copy of Architects of the West Kingdom along, as it’s a fantastic, traditional worker-placement game. I’d forgotten that I’d added both of the expansions into the collector’s box, which was fine, until we came to play. Sorting out what needs filtering out to get the game back to the base game version was a nightmare.
“But Adam, the cards have different markings on them to tell you which expansion they’re from”. True, but sorting and removing cards from different decks when you haven’t played the physical version in ages isn’t instinctive. Instead you’re left trying to setup a game while trying to figure out which cards to remove, and not always getting them. We got to the first round of the game and I had to remove cards from players’ opening hands because they got missed, got everyone to put the big worker meeple back as that’s for an expansion, and other little fiddly, pain-in-the-arse checks which just wound me up. At one point I almost said “Sod it, let’s play something else”.
In the end we played, it was good, and everyone enjoyed it. I’ve put the cards and pieces back in such a way that future me will hopefully be able to intuit to avoid the same stress again. This is just one example though, and it’s something I’ve felt enough times to warrant writing this.
The lesser of two (or is it three?) evils
There’s nobody out there forcing us to put everything in one box. Sometimes we’re heavily pushed in that direction when publishers bring out collector’s boxes which we’re meant to decant all our other boxes into. This is all well and good as long as they also clearly designate where expansion content is stored, separate from the base game. That doesn't always happen.
Another option is for you, the person who buys the game, to find a way to fit all the expansion content into the base game box. In some ways this is the better option, as you can bag things up as you see fit. More often than not you’ll end up with a box that doesn’t fit flush any more.
The other option is to just keep all your expansions in the boxes they came in, taking up more shelf space than maybe you’d like to. This is my preference because I know exactly what’s in which box, and what I need to take to the table to play with a particular expansion.
Sometimes it’s not just the physical space and organising the game that’s the problem. It’s trying to choose which of the plethora of extra bits and bobs to use on top of the base game, and why.
The agony of choice
I know I sound like I’m moaning for the sake of moaning, but it’s something which is really starting to get to me with games that come with loads of extras from crowdfunding. I had Lords of Midgard to review and in the end, I reviewed the base game, because I just couldn’t face unboxing and organising all of the extra stuff. I bought the La Granja Deluxe Master Set and it comes with so many expansions that I’ve punched and sorted, I honestly don’t know where to start when it comes to playing them.
I recently took delivery of the spangly new Awaken Realms special edition of Castles of Burgundy, which is another story again. If you didn’t play Castles of Burgundy back when it originally came out, it took a really interesting direction with expansions. Alea released 10(!) mini expansions along the same lines as the way Carcassonne did things. Not overwhelming, just a load of extra bits to add in. The special edition has these and more. Which do you add in first? Does it matter? Do you care?
I bought the Ultimate Edition of Mage Knight. Awesome, an amazing game with everything which had been released up until that point (The Apocalypse Dragon expansion is on the way next year). I wouldn't have a clue where to start with non-base game material though.
You could justifiably point out some big flaws in the arguments I’m presenting here. Chief among them is that if I played any of these games enough, I’d know all the answers to the things I’m moaning about. I’d open a box and know what’s from the expansions or not. I’d not what things to add in with which players. I wouldn’t sound like I’m complaining about nothing.
Like many of you though, I have too many games. I don’t play each of my games nearly as often as I should, which leads to problems like the one I outlined at the top. My lack of familiarity with the games and their content is often the problem. It’s a problem I could fix by just buying and playing fewer games, but I review them now and that role comes with certain necessities, one of which is playing a lot of different games.
Over to you
What do you think about expansions? Love them? Hate them? Indifferent?
Are there some games you simply won’t play without an expansion now? Do you have mountains of unplayed content in Big Boxes you’ve backed or bought? Drop me a comment here or head on over to the Punchboard discord server and say hello.
As for me, for now, you’ll find me at a table with a base game and no expansions most of the time, until I stop being a grumpy old sod with an easily breached stress threshold.