With extensions to the better game?

Some time ago Christian from Spielstil.net drew my attention to the #BG2GETHER campaign and asked if I would like to participate. At #BG2GETHER different bloggers, podcasters, vloggers etc. create a post about a topic from the world of board games once a month and link each other. To me, this is a great way for all participants to benefit through networking. The reader gets diverse access to a particular topic. After being suspended last month, today is about expansions to board games ...

Expansions, sense or nonsense? Do they really make games better?

The question whether expansions make games better can only be answered with a very clear YES. There are definitely some expansions in my collection. Which of them are good and which are not so great you can read below. For me, expansions make the most sense in story-based games, because they usually don't interfere with the game mechanics but "only" tell new stories. Concrete examples from my shelf are Villas of Madness 2nd or Mouse and Mysticism.

Another but very interesting concept is the Final Girl series by Van Ryder Games. With the solo game you always need an additional film box besides the core box. Without the Filmbox the game is not playable, because it brings the opponent and the playing field. Each box plays differently because of the components it brings without fundamentally changing the game mechanics.

Have there been cases where you've destroyed a beloved title for yourself?

No, not really. However, there are two expansions that I remember negatively, at least on first impression. First, I treated myself to the Pearlbrook expansion to the game Everdell right at release. Everdell is one of those games that can always be quickly brought to the table, especially with beginners - it's fun and great to look at. When I first unboxed the expansion, I was horrified at first. The retail version was an expensive air number. The box contained a lot of air and only a fraction of the original components. However, it must be said that Pegasus took the criticism of many players to heart - the missing components were added at some point.

Play-wise, I found the expansion to Fantastic Realms very disappointing. The item cards were hardly played and made sense in very few cases. The whole time you get the feeling the expansion was developed quickly and forced on the base game to throw something on the market - too bad :-(

And what can't you get enough of?

Very freshly played Dune Imperium this week - for the first time with the Rise of IX expansion. What can I say - this expansion is perfect. It covers part of the game board with new fields and adds interesting new options to the game mechanics. For a final conclusion, one game is certainly too little, but the fact that the expansion covers fields that did not work so well in the basic game shows that someone has really thought about it. The second noticeable thing about the expansion was that the deckbuilding works much better. In the base game alone, it is very tedious to remove weak cards from your deck.

Another great expansion is Riftforce Beyond. The basic game is not changed here but extended by some guilds. These bring more variance into the game, as they play very differently. Everyone who likes to play Riftforce will love this expansion. Especially since there is really much more gameplay and an additional solo mode for comparably little money.

As already mentioned, #BG2GETHER is a format to strengthen networking, so read directly more interesting articles on the topic e.g. at:

• Abenteuer Brettspiele: abenteuer-brettspiele.de/brettspiel-hobby/machen-erweiterungen-sinn-welche-brettspiel-erweiterungen-es-gibt
• Brett und Pad: brettundpad.de/2022/09/09/erweiterungen-sinn-oder-unsinn
• Brettspielpoesie: brettspielpoesie.de
• Fjelfras: fjelfras.de/wordpress/blog/brettspiele/erweiterte-horizonte
• Spielenerds: spielenerds.de/erweiterungen-sammelsucht-vs-spielspass
• Spielstil: spielstil.net/erweiterungen-sind-vollkommen-ueberbewertet