Expeditions

I tried to like Scythe, its so highly rated I gave it many chances but just can't get into it. So I tried Expeditions not expecting to like it - and had the opposite experience. This game clicked we me from the first play.

Call it a sequel or spinoff for Scythe, but do give it a play - even if you didn't like Scythe.

This is a stand alone game from Scythe series. Yet, totally amazing game if you like Scythe. Great game night with buddies and family. Fast shipping from seller, and all items are well protected from shipment. Lovely.

Enjoyed the game so far only played at 2 player count. I expect this game to be even better at higher player count. Decent replayability with randomized starter tiles and different engine building from the random draw deck.

So, let's get one thing out of the way first. This is NOT a sequel to Scythe. It reality it is much closer to a deckbuilding game than a 4x game.

But, that being said it it probably one of the easiest to groc yet incredibly thinky games I've played in a long time. AND...a lot of the actions make it *feel* like you're doing some of the stuff you're doing in Scythe. A lot of the of icons have been re-purposed some to great success and some not so much.

Pros: Yes, it is still a "race" game like Scythe - in this case first to 4 stars played. BUT, you can't rush it like you sometimes can in Scythe. You need to reveal certain tiles before you can start placing stars. I like that A LOT better. The action selection mechanism is VERY cool. On most turns you will choose two of three actions - Move (1-3 spaces on the board), Gather (from a tile), or Play (a card). And you can't the same combination of actions in consecutive turns. At the start of the game (or if you Refresh), you can do all three actions. Great replayability. Even though you use the same tiles, they are randomly laid out so each game feels different.

Cons: Not a lot here. We've played with 3 and 4 players. But not sure I'd play with 5 until everyone had played a few times. I think there is a real chance for it to get bogged down...especially with new players. The Map Tokens, don't really do a lot. They were really important in the original Scythe (giving you a card), but not here. They're just a collectable. I hope the expansion will remedy this. But that's pretty much it.

Summary
Overall, I was VERY impressed with this game. After watching a few reviews I was worried it was going to be a little too themeless for me and not deep enough to compensate. But after playing it three times, that is not that case. Sure I don't get the thematic depth of Scythe, but maybe they'll do a Co-op expansion like Fenris that will push people more in that direction.

Oh, and one last thing about whether it's a sequel or not. I think in future editions, Stonemaier might be but to call it Expedtions: A Game in the Scythe Universe. But that's probably nitpicking.