2008: A Year of Crappy Expansions

I’m sort of a lurker here at F: AT, but thought that I would finally post some thoughts on 2008. Since I began to into the gaming hobby, I’ve always been a sucker for buying expansions. My game boxes for Memoir ’44, Carcassonne, Arkham Horror, and A Game of Thrones are packed to the top with expansions. I’m sort of a completist.

But after looking at those threads for the Best _____ Game of 2008, I realized how much 2008 sucked for expansions (and for Ameritrash in general) and how some popular franchises really hit the wall.

Arkham Horror: This is one of my favorite games, but let’s face it. 2008 wasn’t a good year for AH. Kingsport Horror was kind of a let down. The extra board wasn’t that great and rifts aren’t as game changing as they could be. The Epic battle cards were a nice addition, but not worth going out of your way to get the expansion. While I haven’t played it yet, Black Goat of the Woods hasn’t sounded like anything that I’d be rushing out to get either. From the reviews and comments I’ve read, it hardly seems to make much of an impact on the game in general. I wished that FF would have designed it closer to what they did with The King in Yellow, where there was the visiting performance mode and gave AH a whole different feel. I don’t know about this one.

I hope and pray that the Innsmouth Expansion will breathe some new life into AH.

Memoir ’44: You can take Mediterranian Theatre, Hedgerow Hell, and Operation Overlord, and put in the Campaign Bag, and you pretty much have a bag of sh$%#&. I love Memoir, but I think 2008 ended my need to collect all things Memoir. I don’t plan on getting anything made this year.

Carcassonne: I know F:AT is more geared for Ameritrash game, but I’ve always liked Carcassonne. I really liked how the franchise brought some “take that” into the game with the Tower and Dragon expansions. But The Catapult??? WTF. That pretty much ends my Carcassonne collection.

Shadows over Camelot: So the long awaited expansion to SoC was this Merlin thing? It’s staggering to see how far Days of Wonder has fallen in a few short years.

Tannhauser: There were a bunch of new character expansions, but that wasn’t what this game needed. Tannhauser is crying out for a Dunwich Horror-like expansion to bring some life into this game. It has so much potential that hasn’t been realized yet.

Tide of Iron: Days of the Fox: Not bad, but not amazing either. Let’s see what we get in the Normandy expansion.

Let’s all hope that 2009 is a better year for the expansions the game systems we love.

On the plus side, the Runebound expansions were excellent; the best so far.

Well that's good to hear. I've also heard the Descent expansions weren't too bad either. But I've already blown so much money on boardgames, I'm afraid to get trapped in dollar-vacuum that is called Runebound.

Might not have been great for AT games but I feel I ought to put in a word for an expansion to one of the best Eurogames around - Rails of Europe. At a stroke this eliminates virtually every complaint there was about the original Railroad Tycoon and, bizarrely, actually manages to make the rules slightly easier to learn as well. It's a cracking addition to the line-up, and worth a look for any owner of the original game.

2008 was kind of sucky for expansions. Except Descent which got the massive lovin'.

A friend of mine is a massive, massive fan of Shadows Over Camelot. He painted all his figs and artifacts, the whole nine yards. And even he doesn't think you get enough for your money for the expansion and he refuses to buy it because it's kind of a rip-off.


I definitely need to buy Rails of Europe, that looks awesome. Would go nicely with the base game I got from Dogmatix in a math trade earlier this year. If I got RoE then maybe I'd have a shot at fitting the board on the table (holy SHIT is Railroad Tycoon a table hog or what...that's bigger than the WotR board.)

Ken B. wrote:

If I got RoE then maybe I'd have a shot at fitting the board on the table (holy SHIT is Railroad Tycoon a table hog or what...that's bigger than the WotR board.)

Haha. The Conquest of the Empire board is fully 1/3 bigger again! (It has three fold-out sections of the same size as the two found in RRT)

Now THAT's what I call overproduced.

I think the Mayfair version of the new big Catan expansion, Traders and Barbarians (or whatever it's called) came out this year, too. I haven't tried it, but it seems entirely inessential.

It seems that many of the franchise games -- the ones that are well suited to expansion -- ran their course years ago, so recent expansions tend to involve catapulting meeples over shark cages.

Wow, I kind of forgot about RAILS OF EUROPE...yeah, that's a great expansion. My favorite thing about it is that it makes the game much more playable for 3-4 players. But please, keep in mind, it's not a RAILROAD TYCOON expansion- it's an expansion for "Eagle Games' Popular Railroad Game".

I think ARKHAM HORROR has come to the end of its cycle in terms of expansions. From talking with Richard, I know INNSMOUTH is going to be another DUNWICH/KINGSPORT style expansion so expect another town board. Richard hasn't been on the team designing the small box expansions but he's done both of the big ones, and that's part of why they're a little more comprehensive. I don't want another small box cards expansion, as it is the game is BLOATED to an insane degree at this point. I wouldn't expect much more after INNSMOUTH...except maybe a DREAMLANDS piece.

I dunno man, THE CATAPULT looks fun to me...I like CARCASSONNE with all the expansions, and I'm probably going to have to get that one too.

I just sold TANNHAUSER. I'm not waiting for an expansion at this point because the game is decent but not worth holding on to and I doubt an expansion will really help it. It's a great system, not so great game.

DAYS OF THE FOX...oh yeah, I forgot I bought that...I haven't even punched it. CONFLICT OF HEROES has been getting played more than ToI lately.

Juniper wrote:

I think the Mayfair version of the new big Catan expansion, Traders and Barbarians (or whatever it's called) came out this year, too. I haven't tried it, but it seems entirely inessential.

It seems that many of the franchise games -- the ones that are well suited to expansion -- ran their course years ago, so recent expansions tend to involve catapulting meeples over shark cages.

I like the base Catan game and we tried the Cities and Knights expansion. It did add alot more cutthroat elements to the game but it also added more time than needed to the game. to me it kind of lost the charm of the original. Never tried the Seafarers game so I'm not inclined to try this one either.

I liked Growing Hunger. Added just enough to expand the replay value, but didn't alter the game so much you have to decide "do we want to play with _____ expansion" or not. One of the reasons I dropped Carcassonne was the pre-game debates of which scoring and which expansion(s) to use. Or for that matter, which Carcassonne version to play.

Michael Barnes wrote:

I dunno man, THE CATAPULT looks fun to me...I like CARCASSONNE with all the expansions, and I'm probably going to have to get that one too.

Ugh. Carcassonne is fun with one, maybe two expansions. But all of them together? It tried to play all the expansions once and I felt like pouring gasoline on myself and lighting a match about half way through.

If I got the catapult, I would probably use the catapult for other games instead. If Mandy Thompson gets devoured, put on her the catapult and fling her into the mouth of Cthulu.

ubarose wrote:

I hate CARCASSONNE. THE CATAPULT is the only thing that would tempt me to play. Flinging stuff with tongs looks like it might be fun.

But there are lots of games that involve flinging stuff that don't require that you have a game of Carcassonne going on at the same time.

I would consider trying Carcassone if there were lawn darts involved.