Top 5 Games Better with an Expansion

5. New Frontiers – More Variety

I’m not only telling you which games are better but how they are better. I enjoy New Frontiers, a Roll for the Galaxy Board Game quite well. And even out of the box it’s a fun game. But this is one of those games where the expansion does it right. It just adds in more stuff. That means you get more variety and variability in what you start with. Is it needed for the game, not completely, but I think that it makes it better because it just adds in a little bit more to the game.

So what does it add, it adds in new home planets, new planets and new development that you can do. All of those things are in the base game. It also adds in new actions that you can take. Those new actions replace the old ones and they provide again that added variety. And you can add in goals with them as well. Plus there is a solo mode now. But mainly it just adds more of what you already like about the game.

4. Pitchcar – More Track

I think this one is easy to understand why it’s great to have expansions. Expansions just give you more track for the game and allow you to create crazier different routes to go on. It gives you that freedom to decide, do we want to have a track that goes up and over? Do we want to do a loop? Do we want to make some narrow sections or really long straightaways? All of those things are now an option. I’m not sure that I need to say more than this, so I won’t.

3. Marvel United – More Characters and Villains

This one is odd because I think there is a tipping point for it. Now I am definitely past that tipping point. I have everything in terms of game play for Marvel United. And there is so much stuff. I haven’t even dug into all the Marvel United: Multiverse stuff. But this is a great and simple to table cooperative game. It is made even better by the fact that everything is plug and play. It is so easy to drop in a villain or a hero from another set and just start playing. No matter who it is, it’s just a few minutes to get started.

And I think the expansions really do help. The core box of Marvel United is fine. I don’t think it stands out as an amazing game. Though, if you’re not a gamer, it’s good because it’s easy enough to understand and no heroes or villains are too complicated. And while none of the heroes or villains are complicated in the expansion, they tend to add in more flavor which is great and I think for people who enjoy the base game at all, they are needed for more robust game play.

2. Dice Throne – More Characters

Speaking of more characters, I think that Dice Throne really benefits from the expansions. And the expansions are just that, they are more characters for the game. The big reason is that the characters in the base game are fun, but they aren’t great. The Barbarian feels pretty standard, and that is on purpose. But you get six characters, originally, and if you are like me and love you, you want more.

So I think that the expansions are really great. And I think that the Marvel expansions are great as well for multiple reasons. One, they are fun and thematic. But it is also a great spot to get people into a game system who might be interested in it without the IP (intellectual property). And those characters are thematic as well, so it works very well.

1. Lost Ruins of Arnak – Expedition Leaders

And this is the game that made me think of the topic. I got to play Lost Ruins of Arnak twice last night. One time was just the base game, and the other time with the Expedition Leaders. Now, I love Lost Ruins of Arnak even as the base game. But the Expedition Leaders make it a even better. So what does Expedition Leaders add?

It is mainly just adding in what it says, expedition leaders. These are unique starting cards and leaders wit their own flavor to the game. It really makes for a more interesting experience because now everyone has something unique that they do in the game. And while the base game offers variety, this adds in more, just through the leaders. But it also gives you new research tracks and more cards to mix in, so it’s a great expansion where it just adds in more. But not just more, a bit more complexity as well, if you want it.

Final Thoughts

If a game isn’t good out of the box, I don’t want an expansion to fix it. I want a new, fixed, version of the base game. And I think that for the most part publishers are good about this. All of these things where I talk about the expansions, the base game makes a good game better.

The closest to a game that I’d be not so interested in without the expansions is Marvel United. Spinmaster Games wanted the base game to be simple because they wanted it to be in Target. And I understand that, but as a gamer, it felt like it was too little to me. I could see the fun in it, but I wanted that more, and because I love Marvel I got that more for it.

But the others really are great games without the expansions. The expansion just make a great game better. And the times where I’ve seen an expansion needed to fix the game, it’s often Kickstarter. And it’s often a time where they offer that expansion that makes the game good as part of the Kickstarter or crowdfunding campaign. Which I find to be a bad practice and definitely don’t want companies doing. Always give us the whole game in one box.

What are some of your favorite expansions for board games?

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Now, I think it can be fun to have everything for board games that you love. But the mindset that it needs to be for everything isn’t sustainable. At least, it isn’t for me. I like to try and play a lot of board games. But maybe you have fewer than I do, so getting everything for all the games you own, is more reasonable.

But this article isn’t about whether you should or not. It’s about five games that I go all in on. Which ones make that list and why. And some of them might be the ones that I have in the past which aren’t coming out with more stuff. But still, I went all in on them.

5 Board Games I Go All In On

5. Tainted Grail

Tainted Grail is one of the first ones that comes to my mind because after I beat the campaign, not fully, but almost, I picked up the Monsters of Avalon. I got the minis after the fact, which I just find odd looking back at it. But Tainted Grail is a game that I love, I put it as my #2 game of all time last year. So of course I want it all.

But even then, I think it’s worth to caveat, I get some aesthetic stuff for games. I don’t do it all the time. So even with a game like Tainted Grail, I don’t have all of the aesthetic add-ons for it. They really didn’t interested me.

So why did I go all in on Tainted Grail? I love the game, it’s as simple as that. As the Monsters of Avalon became more readily available, I wanted to get them. Why, because even though I’ve played it once, I believe that I’ll want to come back and play it again. And that is going to make it more immersive again in the future.

4. Aeon’s End

Next up is Aeon’s End and this is another game that is high in my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2023 Edition. So I don’t think it’s a shock, in fact, I’ll probably skip over mentioning that on the next ones. But this one I do get most everything for it. I don’t own all the playmats, but then again, I don’t own a lot of playmats in general for games.

But Aeon’s End, whenever a new expansion comes out, I want to get it. Why, because Aeon’s End is pretty easy to play with more content. You take your breach mages, your nemesis, and cards to buy. That is it. Everything is randomized, but it’s randomized so simply.

The area that I went extra on this one is that I have all of the extra cards. Not all the promo cards, so I am not truly a completionist with it. But for the breach mages as its a deck building game, I need to out of the box, create the decks each time. It’s not hard, but they offered packs to let you do that and leave the decks setup for all the mages. I bought that because it makes it just that much easier to grab and play.

3. Dice Throne

Another one is Dice Throne. You knew this one was going to be on the list. And I keep on thinking of game elements that I don’t own anymore. I don’t own Dice Throne Adventure. Technically it’s an expansion, but it more feels like it’s own game at least to me. And I love base Dice Throne so much that I didn’t want that.

Why do I get it all, because it’s all plug and play. I can grab any characters to face off against each other and play. Santa vs Krampus, sure. Santa vs Thor, absolutely. Krampus vs Spider-Man vs a gunslinger, there isn’t a reason not to do it. And because of that mix and match and ease to play, it is high on the list. And whenever they announce a new set, it’s an easy back.

2. Marvel Champions

Then we have Marvel Champions. This one I maybe shouldn’t be getting everything for. I need to play it more, the same is true with my #1 as well. But I don’t for two main reasons. And I fully intend to keep on buying more of it, though very soon I’ll need a third box to store it. And I do want to play through one of the campaigns for it this year.

But it’s again that plug and play nature. I leave the starting decks or characters together. So I just need to put the villain together and I can hop into it. But I get to pick if I want to have Spider-Man face off against Rhino. Or I can also have Spider-Man fight Kang, or Gambit fight Rhino, it’s so easily mix and match it’s great. The other part is that it’s Marvel. I love Marvel, so it’s easy for me to keep on wanting to get it all.

1. Marvel United

Finally is Marvel United. And I think you can guess one reason easily as to why it is on the list. I love Marvel, so I want it all. But it’s a fun game that I need to play more, and it really is easy to get to the table.

So the main reason, and like so many, is that the game is plug and play. The new characters and villains I get, it’s easy to just drop them into the deck and go. I can take Squirrel Girl, Magik, and Thor up against Nimrod. Or I can end up being way more obscure than that, and that’s pretty obscure already. It has everything for it that’s so much fun to get those combinations.

And I think as you get more combinations it makes the game better. The core box is quite simple, but the game itself is always the same core, but becomes more interesting and more challenging as you mix in things and go up against other villains.

Final Thoughts

I try and limit what I go all in on. And sometimes I do a good job of holding firm. Not on the list is Marvel Zombies from CMON. I want it to be there, but as of right now, I’m not buying that giant Galactus. I own everything else, but just that pile of stuff is a lot, but also probably less than one Galactus. So it is a balancing act.

And like I said, for me, I like to do board games in and out of my collection. If I go all in, it’s way harder to have a game leave. Or it’s way harder to bring in five games at once because they all take up room. Even in this case, I have made my Marvel Champions, Marvel United, and Aeon’s End all take up less space than they would if you kept all the boxes.

Are there any board games that you go all in on? And do you feel like your game is lacking something if you don’t go all in?

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Top 3 Board Games That Need a New Edition

Just to set-up how I’m picking the list. I am picking games that I have played. I know that there are some games that are mainly unplayable as the rules are written. If I haven’t played it, I can’t judge that for sure. I know some people think Tainted Grail is the worst thing ever for the grind that was explicitly said to be part of the game (don’t get me started) but I like that game a lot. So I don’t think it needs a second edition of the core game.

3. Lost Ruins of Arnak

This one is pretty easy as to why I think it should have another edition and it’s not because there is a major flaw with the core box of the game. In fact, I enjoyed it pretty well playing what comes in the core box. But the first expansion gives you leaders with powers. That should be in the core box. It took the game from a 7 or so up to a 9 or 10 for me because it meant everyone was doing things a bit more differently.

Now, I don’t think this will happen anytime soon. Lost Ruins of Arnak is a new game that they are still coming out with expansions for. But, in my opinion, the leaders should be in that main box. Even if you want to start with playing vanilla Lost Ruins of Arnak, have it in the box for when you’re ready for the next step.

2. SeaFall

This one falls into having issues in a number of ways. The rules were not good, the game itself was too long, and sometimes, you just got the story out of order. But I like the idea of a pirate legacy game, even though this barely seemed like pirates. So SeaFall is one that could use a complete overhaul, well, kind of.

I do think that the bones are there for a good game. There are elements like getting crew, exploring, fighting, even the dice mechanics once you figured them out in the rules weren’t too bad, but it needs to be tightened up. Maybe reduce how much you can possibly do in a game. Introduce rules more slowly, something like that. They changed rules, but let’s start out with just exploring and then after a couple of games add in fighting.

The two big things are you need to shorten the length of the game. There is no reason, besides to allow you to find more, to extend the games by a point each time. The game is already long at the start, there needed to be a way to get more points at the start from the legacy decisions that you made. And it’d have been a great balancing mechanism.

The other thing is that story. Like I said, you can find it out of order. The game is played over a number of sessions, give me a booklet or a section of the booklet to find the stories. That keeps the story from coming out awkwardly and leave the players with more questions. I get the desire for open world, but that isn’t needed in this case.

1. Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game

This is a Marvel game that I will not get. Helps that a friend has or had a ton of it so I got to play it a number of times. But for me this is a game that needs to be rebooted because, in my opinion, the game really doesn’t work that well. You fight a boss, deal with henchmen, and generally feel like you’re not doing much of anything.

Marvel Champions is more of what I wanted, but I think there is room for improvement on Legendary and that both could be in a collection. Mainly, I don’t feel like a super hero when I played Legendary. That’s kind of the idea is you are a super hero(es) beating up bad guys. But it takes forever to get to the main bad guy, make the easier and throughout the game than a last second dash at the end.

And with the deck building, I feel like I’m collecting random heroes. Iron Man, Hulk, Black Widow, and Captain America all in the deck, I’ll probably have some of all of them. So everyone is playing basically the same team-up. I’d prefer a more generic set of cards, each hero can add some to it, but you play as a hero with a base set of that hero’s cards. Let me build up my hero and be a hero in battle. I don’t need to be everything. Let me grab a cool move, some intel, whatever it might be. But it is better than what they have now.

Final Thoughts

I could have come up with more. I actually almost push Smash Up on the list with just, make it into Marvel Snap. They are close, but Marvel Snap is so much better. And that one would really be changing the game, into a new game, versus being a second edition. I guess that Legendary might fall into that area as well.

But board games sometimes need that new edition. And, I would, if I ever had the time, go through SeaFall again and try and turn it into a better game. Try and make it something that doesn’t take four hours to play and a lot of that time not being interesting, in higher player count games. But that is for future me when I have future time, though, I’ll probably always be busy.

Is there a game you want to see a second, better, edition of?

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CoolStuffInc

Dungeons and Dragons: The Yawning Portal

I don’t even know that much about this game. But it’s a theme that I like a lot, Dungeons and Dragons. And from what I know of The Yawning Portal, that’s a portal in a tavern that leads to a lot of different adventures. It’s part of the Sword Coast and Forgotten Realms setting for Dungeons and Dragons. I’m hoping for a fun, lighter, adventure style game.

TIME Stories Revolution: Cavendish

I still get basically everything for TIME Stories. This is one the new cycle now so I need to get through the first stuff, first. But it’s been a game that we’ve enjoyed a lot. And if I figure out a better storage solution, I can make it take up a whole lot less space on my game shelf. But I’m curious to play more. And even if it isn’t the most loved thing, it should be fun for my group still. We’ll see when we get this far into the series.

Jurassic World: The Legacy of Isla Nublar

Next up we have a legacy game with mixed reviews. But mixed reviews was enough to keep me from running out to get the game. I think for a lot of gamers it has been. I wonder as it goes on sale more, if more gamers or people will buy it. It’s a Jurassic Park/World park building game where you are avoiding dinosaurs and basically playing through stories around the movies, not really the movie stories. It looks like light fun, which is why it felt like the right price to get it when it was pretty heavily on sale.

Reload

Finally from CoolStuffInc we have Reload. I’ve heard very mixed things about this game as well. But I like what it is in concept. Kind of that battle arena like a Fortnite or PUBG style of game. You run around, the area gets smaller, you want to be the last person standing. It sounds like a fun time with some complexity and decision making, if you make it through the rules.

Miniature Market

Rome and Roll

Rome wasn’t built in a day, but in a short chunk of an evening you can build it up in this roll and write game. Or at least build up your gladiators, warriors, and I believe civilization as well. It’s a heavier and crunchier roll and write game. One that I want to play to see if it’s a good game for me. That, Hadrian’s Wall, and Twilight Inscription might be my heavy roll and write games.

Stranger Things: Upside Down

This one should be arriving today or so, but it’s a Stranger Things board game. And one from the designer of Pandemic. Now, it’s not just the Pandemic system. But it is a light to mid weight cooperative game. And kind of follows some of the things you expect. You do things and then bad things happen. But how the bad things happen and how many is determined by what you do. So it adds this element where you need to push to complete things. but that can cause more bad things to happen.

Lucky Numbers

Lucky Numbers is a game that I don’t know too much about. But it looks like a tile, or number, laying game where you are trying to fill out a grid in a specific way. It looks light, it has a solo mode, so one that I want to try out and see what it’s like.

My City: Roll and Build

You saw this one, potentially, already because I just played it on Malts and Meeples. Let me drop the video below, but it’s a roll and write version of the legacy game My City. I still enjoy it this way, and it makes a nice solo game.

The Quest for El Dorado

Kind of a classic game at this point, and a deck building game. I do like deck building a lot. To go along with that, it’s also a racing game. As you try and navigate a path to El Dorado as efficiently as possible. From what I’ve heard, it has some fun twists on it, which I’m here for. I like deck building a lot, but I don’t need all my deck building games to just be deck building, this one adds in more.

Arkham Horror LCG: Winifred Habbamock

I’m going to have to do a part 2 on this because this article is getting long. And there will be more Arkham Horror LCG character packs on this. I’ve started playing some with a friend, and it’s been a grand time. So I picked up some of the character packs because that is where you get some of the best cards.

Joan of Arc Expansions

This one come from Mythic Games selling off the rights to this game. It’s a bummer because I’m not sure Mythic Games is sitting in that much better of a spot. But for me it’s been a chance to grab more expansions. It’s still a game I need to table. But I like the idea of it as a miniatures style game, but with less overhead.

Omen: Heir to the Dunes

Another one I can’t say that I know that much about. I picked it up because it was on a good sale. It’s a two player head to head game. So the type that might stay in my collection. But it, and Radlands are games that I want to see how they play and if they’ll dethrone my favorite head to head game, Dice Throne.

That’s a Question

Another good sale game. This looks like a simple party game. I’m not sure it’ll be for me, but if I remember correctly it was $3 or $4 so cheap enough to take a flyer on. I don’t know that I need more party games, but I also find that party games are the ones that I rotate the most.

Robots

Robots was another game from that sale. It’s a kids type of game from what I can tell. But in a small box with cute artwork, another one where I look at it and think, why not try it. It might be a fun filler game about making silly robots. If not, it cost $3, so not a big deal.

Skytear Horde

Another one that you’ve seen on Malts and Meeples. So the video will again be below. But this is a tower defense, lane defense game. I like it because it’s just a fun experience that as you start to get into the swing of the game, it moves quickly. Yes, the learning of all the steps can take a bit, but once you’re in, it’s not too bad.

D&D Dungeon Scrawlers: Heroes of Undermountain

Finally another roll and write game. This one with again a Dungeons and Dragons theme. I want to play it, and I want to play some of my other dungeon crawling or scrawling roll and writes, but two of them, this one included, don’t have a solo mode. That’s my only bummer about the game. But a D&D based roll and write game is a theme and style I’ll gladly give a try.

And like I said, more to come. But those are some of the games that are entering into my collection. There’s been a lot coming in, which means that I need to have a decent number of them leave soon as well. Which is what will be happening this weekend.

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What Do I Mean Too Much Stuff in Crowdfunding?

Let’s look at an example. Kingdom Death Monster is a great example of this. Why, because they are still delivering the stretch goals. And they weren’t extremely fast on this timeline, if I remember correctly, but the project was expected to deliver in December of 2020. We’ve had a ton of time since then, why, because they are still designing and delivering stretch goals.

In particular, when I talk about this, I am talking about games that add in so much extra stuff that isn’t planned for in the campaign. The counter to this is CMON who with their Marvel United, they add in a lot of things, but all of them are planned, except maybe the last one or two.

But neither of these examples gets to the meat of the issue. What is it? You can’t play it all. I can’t play it all. Sometimes it is just too much stuff.

Too Much Stuff in Crowdfunding

But more stuff is better, isn’t it? If I get fifty different characters, three add on minis scenarios, miniatures of all the bad guys, that is good, isn’t it?

I do think the answer to this, is sometimes. But honestly, it is not good a lot of the time. Why, there are a couple of different reasons that I want to explore. I think some gamers will resonate more with one or another of them so it is worth calling out both reasons.

Guilt/Must Play It All

The two ideas overall, I think, can be tied to one another. But it’s worth splitting them out, because, they can present themselves in different ways. In this way, I liken it to getting something new or fun and then just looking at it. You get it, and until you use it, you feel bad for getting it.

And with more stretch goals and a bigger all in on the campaign, it is harder to use all of it. Let’s use Marvel United as an example. There are about 200 characters from the first two campaigns. So I own both all in. I play it a few times a year. But I don’t play all 200 characters, and I haven’t yet played all the 200 characters. So I feel bad and guilty for getting all of that even though I enjoy it.

The other reason is going to deal more with not playing it. But with the guilt aspect or the need to play it all, what can hurt is forcing yourself to do that. You feel guilt that you didn’t play with it all, so even though you just played a lot of that game and are done for now, you force yourself to play more. And now a game which is fun, if you play in little doses, becomes a big, heavy drain to play.

Ease To Table

To me, this is the one that I need to work on the most. This idea of get everything because it is awesome, but now I own everything and it makes getting the game to the table harder. And I am not referring to guilt about not playing it and making me apathetic to get it to the table.

This is just that sometimes too much stuff makes it harder to play. An example or two of the opposite of this are Dice Throne and Marvel United. They both go with the grab your characters and go theory. There is little extra set-up or changes to rules because you pick characters. You don’t need to know everything about the game to play with whomever you want.

On the flip side, something like Reichbusters which I might be selling soon and have replaced with a smaller game, is that I own a ton. So I got it all sorted into the boxes. But now to play it, I need own enough that I need to spend a lot of time sorting to get it to the table. It adds a barrier of entry to the game because of how much I own.

And that is where the crux of this issue lies. You want it, because it is awesome. But when you own it, it makes the game harder to get to the table.

The Solution?

To wrap up, I think there are solutions to this. And I’ll talk about a few of them that I like to use. Not all of them work all the time, but they can be good sometimes.

Game Play

First one is one that works well if you feel like there is too much stuff for the game. If you get a box of wooden tokens and metal coins and you need to pull them out to get the real experience of the game. Don’t get them next time.

Marvel United, for example, is a game you can get extra fancy things for. So I get cardboard locations and plastic tokens and a play mat. That isn’t that much, but it’s hard to store the characters already. So if I bought that it would add in even more work to get the game to the table. So just buy stuff for game play.

Retail

Maybe the game play is even too much. Hold off on it and wait until retail. I am not suggesting buying the retail level pledge where it is the base game that will come to stores. You likely can get it cheaper with sales and free shipping. But wait patiently, you can even pre-order it if need be.

Storage Solution

Finally, and this one costs you more money in the long run, get a storage solution. That can be an insert that costs $40-100 depending on the game that makes it easy to play. Or it can be a craft bin for cross stitch thread for $5. Whatever makes it easier to just pull out the game and play. Get something that assists with that, so that when you look at your gaming investment it doesn’t seem too daunting.

What do you find helps you get those monster Crowdfunding games to the table?

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I’ve already talked about culling games, and it is something that I do fairly often, I should look to play more new ones again and do another cull soon. But this article is about how you can maximize the amount of games that you can have in a space.

Step 1: Combine

Now, don’t worry, I am not talking about combining a game like Five Tribes into the Ticket to Ride box and having both in the same box. I don’t like that. But I like to look at a game and go, can I fit the expansion into here. Is there some way that I can make it work. Some games it works well for, Marvel United for example, others, you can free up a little space, like with Root. But how can I free up that space by putting an expansion into the base box.

Step 2: Throw Out Inserts

This ties directly into the first one, but throw out inserts, and this is really for games with expansions. There is an exception to this rule. If the insert makes the game easier to get to the table, keep the insert. For example, if Stars of Akarios comes out with an expansion, I am not going to get rid of the insert in the base game to get it all into one box. Why, the insert makes the game easier to table. But on the flip side, Reichbusters had a big insert to house one giant mini. I don’t need that, so let me remove that and get my four boxes, and four big boxes, down to three.

Step 3: Organize

Then organize your space, and think about how you want to organize. Because of my streaming, I want some of the bigger titles behind me. But you can also do it by size of the games, types of games whatever it might be. I have three cubbies that are full of roll and write games for example, just not on the side on camera. But organizing helps you gain space in two ways. You can optimize how you place your games and you might find a few to cull.

Step 4: Organize Less

Now, this flies in the face of Step 3. But organize less. We are talking about fitting a lot of games in. Some games just won’t fit in a good spot. I have Hadrian’s Wall down below, why, because I am out of room. I really should play a couple of roll and writes and decide if I can get rid of a few. But if I tried to cram them all into one spot or keep them sorted too neatly, I’d have four semi-full cubbies for of roll and writes. Instead I have three jam packed ones and one that is in another spot.

Final Thoughts

Now, this might not be easy for you to do. I know of gamers who really want their games to be like they were when they got them. Keep them as new looking as possible, keep the expansion boxes if possible and some of that is because they might want to sell them again later.

So, it is something that is personal to the person doing it. It might be easier for you to sell games than to condense a base game and an expansion into a box. Or easier to sell a game than have a roll and write not with the other roll and writes. It depends on you, but if you want to get more games, the tips above or steps above will create more room.

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How Much Can It Be?

Let’s take Catan for an example, how much could you get for Catan. Just doing the basic stuff that people know, off the top of my head, you have Catan, 5-6 player expansion, Seafarers, Seafarers 5-6 player expansion, Cities and Knights, and 5 to 6 player expansion. I likely could come up with more, but that’s just for basic Catan without going into different versions. But Game of Thrones Catan is out there as well and Star Trek Catan and Starfarers of Catan. Plus a big 3d tile version of Catan. That adds up fast. And if you look on Board Game Geek, there are over 175 results.

And you can do that with a lot of games, Arkham Horror: The Card Game, Marvel Champions, or any of the living card games from Fantasy Flight Games give you a ton of content. Or Aeon’s End, there are 6 big boxes for the game, all that are standalone, plus then, I think, it’s 11 small box expansions as well. Or Sword & Sorcery with three or four big boxes now, plus a lot of character boxes.

So, there can be a lot out there.

But I Want To Have Everything

This is a common sentiment that really drives the whole idea of buying everything for a board game or not buying anything at all. But that isn’t feasible with so many games. Or it means that you will limit the number of games that you can get.

If you think about, let’s say, all of Marvel Champions, Arkham Horror, Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, Android Netrunner, and I think that is all the Fantasy Flight Living Card Games, that is a ton of content just there. I just remembered that there is a Star Wars one as well. It would be nearly impossible to get all and nearly impossible to play all of that.

So do you really need everything. I get the idea of wanting to own it all. But I believe that an all or nothing approach is not ideal.

Why Might It Not Work For Every Board Game?

I have a few reasons why it might not work for every game. And I will finish up with that I don’t think it’s always bad. But I’ll explain more on that later.

Cost

Firstly, this is very expensive to get everything. I do have a few games that I own basically everything for or everything for. Aeon’s End, Deep Madness, and Marvel Champions. Plus some smaller games, but that tends to be something like Res Arcana which has two expansions. But doing it for every game, like I said, is that it is very expensive. So I can’t do it for every game, and most likely you can’t as well.

Ease of Play

It also can make it harder to get the game to the table. And this is one thing that I suspect a lot of gamers don’t think about. What sort of content are you adding in? Is it content that needs to be sorted in and out depending on if you want to play with it? If that is the case, then the game is going to be much harder to get to the table. If it is just stuff that you can add into the main decks of cards and main box, then it might not make it too difficult.

An example of it not being a big deal with Marvel United. That is basically grab and go for the game. You don’t mix in anything extra. On the flip side, there are games that add in modules, even something like Medium a party game, where you are supposed to sort it out each time.

Getting Through The Content

Finally, at least that I’m thinking of right now, you need to ask if you will get through all of the content. Marvel Champions has how many heroes and villains? Will you get through all the combos? Or will you just play your favorite hero against different villains? Because there’s no harm in that. But that does mean that you don’t need all the content.

I won’t lie, I shouldn’t own all the content currently. I do, and I do want to play it. But I own all of it because I love Marvel. Not because I think, for sure that I’ll get to all of it. Some of it I just want to own because of the theme and characters it has. Maybe I will get to it, but Marvel Champions, with the speed they add more content, is unlikely ever to be fully played.

So Never Get Everything?

No, I don’t want to say that you shouldn’t ever. Let’s be fair, I own everything for Marvel United, Marvel United X-Men, and Marvel Champions. I own everything for Aeons End and almost everything for Deep Madness. But I don’t need everything for all my games.

I own base Carcassonne and that is all that I need. The core box for Lord of the Rings The Card Game is on my shelf, and I don’t need more of that. I got rid of the Sauron expansion for the Lord of the Rings game because I didn’t need the extra content that added.

When buying everything for a game, ask yourself the question above. And also consider that you can probably always track down more later. With a rare exception of Marvel United and Marvel United X-Men all the games that I own everything for, I got it not all at once. Well, let me correct that, anything that has an expansion.

Final Thoughts on Owning Everything For A Board Game?

You don’t need to own everything for every game. You don’t even need to own everything for any game. But I also don’t want to discourage you, too much, if you do have games you want everything for. I certainly don’t need everything for Marvel United, but I own it and I don’t regret it.

I do think it is worth thinking, though, when you find yourself going down that path. When you look at a Kickstarter and think, I should go all in on this, even though you don’t care about some of the content, just in case you do later. eBay exists, so you can probably find it later. It might cost a bit more, but also doesn’t eat up space, isn’t something you have to sell, if you find you don’t want it.

What is a game that you want or own everything for? And what is a game that maybe has been harder to play or left your collection because you did own everything for it?

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• Add More Players
• Add More Content
• Change Up The Content

Most of the ones I’m going to want expansion for will be in the last two categories. Rarely do I want to add more players to a game, unless it doesn’t change how long the game is. Six player Catan, for example, takes longer than two player Catan.

So let’s get to the list.

Points Salad

Point Salad should really have an expansion, but it is not an easy one to give an expansion to. Point Salad is a set collection game where you draft cards from a tableau. You either draft vegetables or scoring cards. And that is why it’s tricky. The scoring cards are on the back of the vegetables, so you can’t just add in more veggies easily. If you added more you’d need to redo every single card, and at that point, it’s just a new game.

So how would I make it work?

I think I’d add in a toppings expansion. So stuff like croutons, bacon, cheese, nuts, dressing, things like that. And they would influence how scoring goes. But they would need to be in the big tableau to able able to score. I don’t know how you’d change it up too much with them, but maybe they get played in a row of veggies or they use up certain veggies for their scoring.

Homebrewers

Homebrewers is one where I just want more content for it. I want more end game scoring objectives, I want more playable characters, I want more ingredients to brew with. The game is a ton of fun and a really fast engine building game with a theme I love of brewing beer.

Mainly, I think with the ingredients there is room for more powers that you could add to them. And more things you could do to play around with the different types of ingredients. So that’s what I’d really like for it. It’d just be more stuff that you could do. I know there is an equipment pack for it, but that’s impossible to find, so I consider Homebrewers one that needs an expansion.

Sonora

Sonora might seem like an odd one, how would you expands this roll and write game? In it you flick discs, that determines where you can write. So you write on your player board in four different areas that all combo together. Sonora is a roll and write game where it is all about the combos.

This is one where with how they built it that you can slide the main board in and out, I want to see a new main board and new player boards. Give me a whole new Sonora puzzle with completely new roll and write sections to be working on, all while still flicking discs. That would just be fun to have more for the game.

Mesozooic

One that I wrote about recently. Mesozooic is a combination of a drafting game and a sliding puzzle. It is a lot of fun as you try and complete routes in your dinosaur park, get enclosures completed, things like that. You can read more about it here.

I’d like to see an expansion that adds in some new scoring. I do need to mess around with the advanced scoring cards as well. But even more wouldn’t be bad. And I wouldn’t even mind seeing more players add to this game. It’d make the game even more random at higher player counts. But that’s okay, the sliding puzzle itself makes the game pretty random as it is.

Ohanami

Ohanami is an interesting little game about putting numbers in order. The game is simple in that you draft two cards and you add them to any of three columns you have going. But the number must be either higher or lower than what is already in that column. Plus there is scoring that develops over time.

What would I add to Ohanami? Probably ways to score more points. So a new scoring pad and some scoring cards that give you bonus points. Like a multiplier for the longest run of numbers that you have consecutively in a column. Points for the column with the most cards in it, stuff like that. And have there be three bonus cards you play with each time. Just seems like a simple edition that could add more to the game.

Paper Dungeons: A Dungeon Scrawler Game

Paper Dungeons, another game that I’ve talked about recently. In fact, you can see me play it over on Malts and Meeples YouTube Channel. Or you can watch it right below. But this is a dungeon crawling roll and write game where you are leveling up heroes, fighting monsters, crafting items and more. It’s a great puzzle of a game.

I want to see more monsters added to this game. More monsters with different rewards and possible even some different behaviors. Or maybe even trait cards you could play on monsters that make you consider how strong you want to be when fighting it. Stuff like that which change up the monsters and maybe make them feel more unique.

Titan Race

And the final one is Titan Race. This is a racing game where you can race a few different ways. You can loop over the same track three times, or you can make a grand prix and play on three boards. Each board has special interactions, might hand out damage, might let you jump or move faster. And each racer has a power as well that they can use.

Titan Race is a game that won’t get an expansion, it’s been out for a while at this point. But I’d love one for it with more boards and more racers. I think that when it comes in Tiny Turbo Cars might replace this. But Titan Race will be simpler, so it might be one that sticks around for that, because the game is a lot of fun. I’d like more boards and more variety and maybe even the shot for a longer race, though that’d make the game take longer

What Board Games Do You Want To Get Expansions?

What are some games that you think need expansions. So many games these days do get expansions so it was a trickier list to make than sometimes. But I think I came up with a lot of good games. And while I was writing the article, I ordered the equipment expansions for Homebrewers, so it only should kind of make my list.

There are some games, like Unfathomable, the more I play it the more I might want an expansion. But right now I don’t need one for it. And if it makes it more complex to teach or get to the table, I won’t get it to the table as much. Or it depends on how well I can keep them separated to pick and choose what I want to play with.

Let me know ones you’d like to see get expansions down in the comments below.

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Chronicles of Crime: Welcome to Redview

These first three are all fro a sale that was titled Gamer’s Choice, and they really were choice games. They had a lot of great ones in there. I decided to take the opportunity to grab this expansion for Chronicles of Crime. Mainly because it’s a kids on bike style expansion and story for the game.

If you aren’t familiar with the concept of kids on bikes, think of Stranger Things, that is a kids on bikes story. Or the Goonies would also meet that style of story. Basically it’s an adventure that kids have with only a little adult interference or interaction.

And if you aren’t familiar with Chronicles of Crime, it is an app assisted board game where you are investigating crimes. It gives you a view of the crime scene through the app as well as facilitates the questioning and story elements as you scan in QR codes to ask people about things. It allows the game to have a more dynamic world than you could without the app.

Under Falling Skies

The first of two solo games in the order. Under Falling Skies is a resource management dice game. It has you fighting off waves of aliens. The better the dice you activate are or the better the ability the faster the alien ships will make it to earth. So it’s a balancing act of using lower dice so that when you need to use a higher die value you can. I want to build out my collection of solo only games because I do enjoy them. Expect to see this on Malts and Meeples before too long, I just need to finish up Aeon’s End Legacy first.

Orchard: 9 Card Solitaire Game

While Under Falling Skies is a bigger solo game, but not a big solo campaign game, Orchard is clearly a small game. Nine cards is not much. I am hoping that this gives me a nice puzzle to try and solve and then maximize my points for. It has you laying out and overlaying cards while you are putting dice on them. This one really interests me because it is again a small footprint game and a fast game. It says 5-10 minutes so I could knock out a bunch of these fast while watching football or soccer in the upcoming months.

Ascension: Immortal Heroes + More

I didn’t list out everything I got for Ascension, but I got a few theme packs as well. Leprechaun, Rat King, Samael Claus, and Rat Queen. All of those were $2.50. Just like a fun extra thing for sure. The Immortal Heroes is a bigger box expansion which is always fun to add in. I now have a nice collection of different Ascension sets to play around with. Though, I do mainly play with the base game. The game as a whole is a lot of fun though. I do want to find a better way to track the different resources that I have in that game as a player.

Downforce: Danger Circuit and Wild Ride

So, after playing Downforce last weekend, you can see how much I liked the game here. Danger Circuit gives two new tracks and some new powers. And if you saw my complaint, you’d know that I wanted more powers. But Wild Ride adds in a number of things. There is one that features a water jump and ramps. The other side has wild animals that might show up on the track. I’m curious to see how those two different things play out but I think they’ll be a ton of fun. And I guess I should say, the Danger Circuit has loops and splitting roads. While the other side has rough terrain.

I’m definitely going to be creating a Downforce league at some point in time. Like a once a month Saturday racing league, that just seems like too much fun. Now I just need to find my racers.

So that’s everything new that I ordered. I did just sort all my board games on the shelves again, and I have one game I’m planning on leaving my collection so I’ll talk about that here as well.

Captain Sonar

Captain Sonar is a great game. I love the hidden movement trying to figure out where the other teams sub is in real time and sink it before they can sink yours. But I just know I’m not likely to play it much again. At least I won’t play my copy too much. Why, because the game is a lot to teach. Each different person, Captain, First Mate, Radar Operator, and Engineer all play differently. And that means that you need to teach four different things each time. While it has been fun to do in the past, I just have other games that are easier to get to the table that can play eight, or more. And that’s the other thing, Captain Sonar is ideal with eight.

Which of these games would you try and get to the table first?

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I think that most board gamers start out going wide with their collection and then eventually move more towards going deep. But we should probably start off with what wide and deep mean.

A Wide Collection

A wide collection is when you have a wide variety of games. The collection doesn’t have to be huge, but it is all over the map because you are learning what you like to play. This means that you have party games, story games, gateway games, classic games, euro games, and amerithrash games. And really, you have everything in between as well.

When you go out to buy a board game, you don’t think so much about how much you’ll like the game versus how cool a game looks. Now, those two might be the same thing, but with looking at a box cover, you’re less likely to know how a game will paly as you start your collection. So you look at games that look different from what you have.

A Deep Collection

A deep collection is when you know what you like in a board game. And you buy fewer random games, but are more apt to pick up an expansion for something you have. You look at the back of a box and you know how a game plays. And you know if that game is for you or not. So a deep collection might be deep in the euro games that it has, or amerithrash games.

What it won’t have is the variety of different genres of games. It might have some, just so you can play a party game with a non-gamer, or a really nice looking euro game in your amerithrash collection. But more likely it’ll have a lot of games of similar types and expansions for those games. So more of what you already like.

Why Does It Change?

Well, it changes because I know what I like And you will grow to know what you like as well, if you’re early in the hobby. And that is a good thing. Why, it means that you tend to buy less duds. Some games just won’t work for you. And that is true for every gamer. There are going to be people who like those games and some who don’t, and just because people do doesn’t mean you will.

For me, something like Brass: Birmingham. That is a heavy euro game, maybe not the heaviest, but heavier. With my taste in games, I know I wouldn’t buy it. It isn’t that I wouldn’t play it, but as a type of game, it isn’t going to fit in my collection. I look at my collection and there are other games I’d play before it, all the time. Why, because I’m not a big euro gamer, I know that about myself.

But, there are people who are big euro game fans. So they probably wouldn’t put something like Reichbusters in their collection. So while Reichbusters is a solid investment for me, it isn’t for them. And I also know that with Aeon’s End, for example, I like it enough that I want expansions for it. So I have all of it. It means my collection could be more diverse and have more games, but I know I like what I have.

Is Either Better?

I think some would argue for both. A wide collection means you have more variety of games to play with more people. However, if you don’t love those games, do you really want to play them? It’s a bit of a pickle that you can get stuck in, having games to have the variety but never playing those outside of what you really like. On the flip side, if you only have what you really like, you need to have a group that likes the same things. It limits who you can play a game with.

I also think that it’s important to go through the stages. If you are just getting into the hobby and find that you like deck building games, let’s say Dominion in particular. You could go deep, you could get everything for Dominion, and there’s a lot to get. That would be a deep Dominion collection. But it is also not aiding you in if you like more or other types of games. Now, maybe you have a game store that you can play other games at, so you get exposure that way. But for a lot of people they don’t have that option and they are the supplier of games for their group.

Final Thoughts

Two things for final thoughts, one, is that it’s fine to spend as much or as little time as you need in both areas. Because I think that you do bounce back and forth over time some. But don’t feel like you need to rush to figure out what you love. That could take months or years to get that figured out.

Secondly, if you know what you like, don’t use that to limit what you’ll try. I think there are times gamers get into a gaming rut. All amerithrash games are bad, all euro games have no theme, if a game have take that at all in it are trash. Most might not be your type of game, but because a game looks one way doesn’t mean that it is.

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