Expeditions

Players earn victory points by collecting money during the game, completing shared goals, upgrading items, and fighting corruption! Players are dealt a random mech and a random character/companion to create their starting hand - you will need to figure out how to best utilize them in order to win!

The core gameplay loop of Expeditions comes from its action selection mechanism. There are three types of actions: Move, Gather, or Play. On a player’s turn, they will move their action token to cover 1 of the 3 actions, and then perform the remaining 2.

Expeditions features a semi-randomized play area. Most of the location hexes start the game facedown, and players reveal these hexes by moving their mech onto them using the Move action. Note there can only be one mech on each hex, so sometimes you’ll need to wait for another player to move before you can move to a hex you really want to use. 

Each location features some sort of bonus that players can collect using the Gather action. These location bonuses are core to the gameplay loop of Expeditions, allowing players to gain new cards and workers, upgrade item cards, meld meteorite cards, or “boast” to complete one of the shared goals.

Moving and Gathering is fine, but what about these cards? When you take a Play action, you will choose a card from your hand and play it next to your player mat. You will always gain a benefit in the form of one of the two main resources (Power/Guile), and you may further perform the card’s special ability text by placing a worker on it when you play it. Cards have a wide range of abilities, including ongoing effects while the card is “in play,” allowing you to Solve quests (which provide big benefits), and allowing you to Vanquish corruption present on locations (providing points and unlocking a location once corruption is clear).

Generally, players will take their turns Moving, Gathering, and Playing cards until they’ve run out of cards to play. At that point, they will likely need to take a Refresh turn. On a Refresh turn, players will pick up all of their played cards and return them to their hand, and return any of their used workers to their playmat so they can be used again.

A major aspect of Expeditions is figuring out how to make the best use of your turns before Refreshing. Additionally, deciding on the best time to Upgrade or Meld a card is tough - Upgrading/Melding tucks the card under your player mat, meaning you can no longer use the card after a Refresh, but granting you other boons instead. There is a lot more nuance to Expeditions, but this sums it up in broad strokes. The rulebook is available on the Stonemaier Games website if you want to know more! 

🔴Kim🔴 

Some of my favorite mechanics are deck-building, resource management, and hand management so when I heard about Expeditions I was very excited. It is set in the same universe as Scythe, but the gameplay is very different and I have to say, I think I enjoy Expeditions much more than Scythe. Since Devin and I play a lot of games at the 2 player count I think Expeditions is much more suited to that and matches our favorite mechanics a bit more.

There is so much strategy to think through with this game. The movement of the action token really adds to the game and makes you think about exactly which actions you want to take and in what order you want to do them in. I’m looking forward to digging into the game more. 

🟣Devin🟣

Kim mentioned that she might prefer Expeditions to Scythe. I DEFINITELY prefer Expeditions to Scythe. I like the idea of Scythe, but the few times we’ve played it, something always felt a little off. Maybe with more time I’ll warm up to it more, but then again, getting a group together to play Scythe is its own challenge. I feel Expeditions offers a truer experience at 2 players than Scythe can.

Expeditions is nothing like Scythe. The card-playing, hand-curation mechanisms (which are very reminiscent of Concordia, one of my favorites) provide a completely different experience. The focus of the game is on combos, action efficiency, and getting to those sought-after spaces before anyone else (especially with more players). There is no direct conflict in Expeditions. If someone is standing where you want to go, you’ll simply need to wait or find another way to get what you want. Generally, an occupied space will never “ruin” your game, but it will force you to adapt, pursue another goal, or find another way to get what you want.

It took me a couple of plays to really ‘get’ the game, and even then, I still feel like there are smarter ways for me to play that I’ve yet to discover. The addition of asymmetry via the mechs and character cards mean that you’ll want to adapt your usual strategy to fit with what you’ve been dealt - some mech abilities in particular can greatly affect what type of playstyle you may pursue.

Making many of the cards multi-use in some way was an interesting decision. For instance, many of the meteorite cards have powerful abilities when played, but you’ll also want to eventually ‘meld’ them and tuck them under your player mat for those benefits, too. It turns into a matter of timing: when do I want to tuck this card, knowing I won’t be able to play it ever again? It’s a lot of fun to plan your turns ahead with these mechanics in mind!

The only possible negative thing I can think to say about Expeditions is that sometimes it can get a little long due to players getting stuck figuring out their turns. Once people become familiar with the rules and loosen up, the game carries at a brisk pace. Still, with so many options, some players may get stuck thinking, “Well, what should I do?”

One thing to note about the game is that it takes up a lot of space. I’ve seen a decent amount of discussion online about whether or not it was the ‘right’ call to make the main hex tiles so large, but I think it works well. It gives the game a nice table presence, ensures that the full-size cards fit into the empty board spaces between hexes, and allows the mechs plenty of space to be on a hex without obscuring important information. However, if you don’t have a big table to play this on, you may find yourself unable to play at all. For reference, we played comfortably with 3 players on a 3’ x 5’ table.

As a final note, the art, layout, and graphic design are, as always, stellar. I know one of the main draws to Scythe for many people was the art and setting. Expeditions does not disappoint. The art on the hexes is beautiful, as is the art on each card. The unique meeple shapes and black/white-shape markings on the corruption tiles go a long way in accounting for colorblindness.

All in all, I see us playing Expeditions pretty regularly going forward. We have fun playing it, and the weight and mechanisms used hit a sweet spot for us!