Even though I would usually go for the deluxe version of a game like this, I couldn't afford it this year, really wanted to get this to the table with my group, so went with the retail version of the game and expansion. The game plays better than I'd hoped and has decent strategic depth for its playtime. I love that the expansion increases the player count and civilization choices.
I am looking forward to testing out the game at all possible player counts...which leads to the one big problem I've encountered with the retail edition of the expansion...the extractor pieces for the orange player...even players with no colour-blindness find them near impossible to tell apart from the red pieces. This problem means that the only way to play at the full 8-player count is to modify (using a marker, paint or nail polish) the tokens for either the red or orange extractors.
The remaining problem with this printing of the expansion is annoying, but not as impactful to gameplay...it is missing the extra dice that it is supposed to contain. This does not change gameplay, as they're not necessary, but it is annoying to pay the price-point of the expansion and know that the publisher has stated that they will not fix this problem for any games sold via retail channels, only ones that they sell direct.
The expansion is still a great addition to a great game.
