Expeditions marks the return of design duo Jamey Stegmaier and Jakub Rozalski. Expected to be delivered late in 2023, it is the second game based on Scythe’s 1920’s alternate version of history.
It’s been 7 years since Stonemaier Games introduced board gamers into the world of farming and giant mechs. Since then, the wonderful world-building, great components, and its pickup-and-play nature have kept Scythe relevant amid a deluge of board game releases.
Well, that and the persistent support for the game.
Scythe now has four expansions, a legacy campaign, a slimmed-down version for kids, upgraded components, and just one box to store it all in. The last of these add-ons, the modular map board, was released in 2019. After which Stonemaier stayed suspiciously quiet about the Scythe universe.
Finally, we know why.
Expeditions is a game of exploration into the Siberian wilderness. It’s up to you to explore the wilderness and uncover the secret of a meteorite that’s fallen to Earth. Moving from hex to hex, you’ll discover corruption has taken hold upon the land. But whether you take care of that corruption or focus on the other tasks at hand, is completely up to you.
What Stonemaier says about Expeditions
I’m a touch late on the announcement of Expeditions, which was released a couple of weeks ago. So by now, the marketing campaign is well underway. Below is the teaser trailer from Stonemaier, which focuses on the story aspect of the game.
For those who can’t watch the video, or prefer to read, Stonemaier’s website includes a page on the game. You’ll find several pictures as well as the following description:
The standalone sequel to Scythe sends players on a new adventure into Siberia, where a massive meteorite crashed near the Tunguska River, awakening ancient corruption. An expedition led by Dr. Tarkovsky ventures into the taiga to learn about the meteorite and its impact on the land. Itching for adventure, heroes from the war privately fund their own expeditions to Siberia, hoping to find artifacts, overcome challenges, and ultimately achieve glory.
Expeditions is a competitive, card-driven, engine-building game of exploration. It is designed to evoke similar feelings to Scythe even though the mechanisms are different: Play cards to gain power, guile, and unique worker abilities; move your mech to mysterious locations and gain cards found among the tiles; use workers, items, meteorites, and quests to enhance your mech; and use power and guile to vanquish corruption.
All the marketing seems to point to a continuation of the narrative world-building style from Scythe. Where it wasn’t reams of text bringing you into the world like Sleeping Gods, but the evocative art on the cards that always gave you a grander sense of the world, and what living in it felt like.
Everything else we know
According to the timeline provided. The first preorder printing will finish around July, with a retail release later in September. Which for me is too long a wait, given how excited I am.
However, to tide us over, Rodney Smith from Watch It Played released an excellent How To Play video. Detailing the gameplay, what a turn feels like, and how the multi-use cards interact.
From this, it seems like Expeditions is everything I want from a board game. As it includes some of my favourite board game mechanics. Such as engine building, exploration, journeying, and card play. Then you throw in one of the best board game environments around. Yes, please.
You can preorder your copy today from Stonemaier Games or your local board game store. Note there are two editions available: the standard edition and the limited Ironclad edition. While there are no changes in gameplay or additional content in either version. The Ironclad edition swaps the plastic mechs for metal and has some nice golden foil added to the box.
So what do you say, are you ready to return to the world of mechs, bears, and farming?
Loading ...
