Lessons from Expedition: Northwest Passage and the Arctic

Explore the frozen world of the Arctic on a perilous journey across ice and sea with Expedition: Northwest Passage.
In a very fitting and thematic choice, I brought Expedition: Northwest Passage back to my solo table. Definitely made sure I achieved a very wintry atmosphere! I’ve completed the map a few times, yet this continues to be interesting with every play. Picking my way through the ice and plotting a return route home just works… When I actually play well. Ha!
Game Overview
Game Name: Expedition: Northwest Passage
Publication Year: 2010
Designer: Yves Tourigny
Artist: Stéphane Poinsot and Yves Tourigny
Publisher: Matagot
Solo Mode: Official Solo Variant
Through the seasons, a small crew explores unknown territory to locate the Northwest Passage. Icy islands take shape, yet leaving open waterways is necessary to bring home the ship before time runs out. It takes a good deal of experience to make it through a safe voyage in this sea!
First Play
January 26, 2018
Complexity
3
Latest Play
December 21, 2024
Expansions
0
Setup Time
5 Minutes
Lifetime Plays
62
Play Time
25 Minutes
High Score
17
Game Area
26" x 24"
Low Score
-38
The Tiny, Brave Crew
Actions cost workers, represented by just 7 crew members. I’ve always used this assortment of different player colors, in the hopes I’ll eventually write more stories.
This is expertly designed, though: I always want to do just one more move every round, and making it back to Greenland would be far too easy with 8 crew members.
With this tension comes the importance of finding the best decisions: Nothing can be wasted in the Arctic!
I also love the way the crew is split between the ship and sled at different points. So many excellent decisions!
A Solar Disc Lesson
All the way up north, it was inevitable that I would run across a few polar bears! These Calico Critters were all too happy to join in the fun and provide gameplay advice.
They were most interested in driving home the point about the solar disc and the seasons. Anything in the blue area was frozen solid, much like an ice cream cone. Ha!
And to the south, in the yellow area, it was like summer where sailing anywhere was possible… For a time.
Well done, tiny polar bears! I had to remember the ship, which was prone to getting frozen in place during winter.
Home to Greenland
I tried out a few different strategies with this play, dropping off the sled crew partway through while the ship remained anchored in the south for the return journey.
This might be the best sight in the game! Everyone sailed home, alive and well. I just didn’t manage to find the Northwest Passage, yet sometimes, it’s not in the tiles.
Figuring out when to turn back is a key decision, and isn’t always easy to make. Stranding the crew is inadvisable!
Indeed, more of the map would have been uncovered if I was OK with sending the crew to their deaths… Nope!
A Moment to Reflect
The final map is always worth taking a moment to enjoy at the end. It always tells a little story without words, which is something I enjoy with a lot of solo board games.
Here, the ship sailed south before hitting a solid pack of ice, but was able to turn north to send a sled crew out to make significant progress during the winter months.
Unfortunately, there was no way to return to the ship if they pressed on, so the sled crew turned around early.
With the final mild weather, the ship traversed northward, hopeful that the nearly complete map would prove useful.
The Benefits of Consistent Gameplay
As I ease back into playing solo games again, I’m finding that I do best not having to learn new experiences all the time. There is a comfort in choosing experiences where I only need to flip through the rules a little bit. I know what to expect, and that doesn’t need to be this amazingly exciting session. Take this one: It lasts almost exactly 25 minutes!
Now, that’s likely just for me, but the only surprise is if I stray from that time by more than 45 seconds. And that’s one of its strengths. I truly know what it will be like, regardless of whether I win or lose. I know everything about it.
This isn’t true for all of my favorite games. However, there is a big difference between investing my time and energy into learning something entirely new and reminding myself of the rules to something I’ve already played. As I like to say, a lot of what I enjoy about this hobby is untangling the overwhelming elements and removing those when I can.
Do I still like to admire huge play areas and complicated rules? Of course! It’s a matter of tempering those experiences with simpler, bite-sized solo games. I want to give every game a chance to shine, and sometimes, that means not playing for a little longer than expected. No problem! This hobby should be a fun one, not an overwhelming one.
Sacrifices and Triumph
My next attempt saw the sled crew actually make it to the Northwest Passage in record time! It was an exciting moment, especially since all looked good.
I even picked up the 10-value victory point token, which almost never happens. This crew won the race!
However, I wasted a lot of efforts with using the single tiles to fill in the map. The double tiles simply weren’t helping, but time was clearly running out for the ship.
There was an open route straight through the middle of the map, which looked very promising. Just needed time…
You Have Lost
Uh-oh! I failed to plan correctly, and although the ship was so close to connecting back up with the route back to Greenland, everyone was lost at sea when winter returned.
It was a rather sad defeat since the sled crew moved so swiftly and managed to find the Northwest Passage.
Yet I could imagine how these maps might have been found someday, pointing the way towards safety.
I still like to treat this one as a cozy sort of journey, but it’s interesting to think about how these failed voyages may still have passed on knowledge through maps and ledgers.
A Lesson on Sled Size
My rousing defeat roused a sleepy polar bear from his afternoon nap, and he was quite animated regarding a piece of information regarding my choice in sled.
“I can only fit a single paw on this. What is this?!” I suppose the scale factor threw him off, but he had a good point about splitting off the crew from the ship.
Too often, I relied on the sled to make all the progress, but the ship should have been sailing parallel in some ways.
This was not a success, yet I would do better with this polar bear’s advice. I gave him a round of a-paw-lause!
Teaching the Crew
While I learned important lessons from the polar bears, the cutest of the bunch were busy with the crew!
This pair stressed the importance of leaving an opening between the islands, which would allow the ship to pass through. Placing these tiles was quite strategic.
I didn’t get a chance to see if the crew had any questions… And I was far too distracted by how cute these Calico Critter visitors were! Definitely happy to have them back.
Alas, I didn’t fare too well on this outing, yet the game is still one of my favorites, with no sign of fading away.
Session Overview
Play Number: 61 & 62
Solo Mode: Official Solo Variant
Outcome: -1 & -11 (2 Losses)
The tile draw bag betrayed me on this day! I ran across situations where I couldn’t progress, and even cleared the tiles. Unheard of! It still surprises me how unique the map appears with the different arrangements of icy islands. Exploring is not just about placing tiles, but ensuring that there is an easy path home for the ship. Still nowhere close to done with this game, and I’ll have to think up some more challenges to add a narrative the next time I play!
%
60 Plays
Affordability
Price & Value
10
Functionality
Challenges & Mechanics
10
Originality
Design & Theme
10
Quality
Components & Rules
10
Reusability
Achievement & Enjoyment
8
Variability
Distinctness & Randomness
9
+ Pros (Positives)
- Play time is very consistent with minimal surprises and a balanced number of workers to carefully plan actions.
- Figuring out the time to turn back for Greenland is an imperative part of gameplay, and always feels important.
- There is a charm in the board and components that feels old-fashioned and historical, but not out-of-date.
- Arranging the tiles to create islands is an interesting experience that can offer very different experiences.
- Making up different challenges or goals is easy to do, such as a complete map or sets of exploration tokens.
- Every map tells a little story at the end in an enjoyable way that narrates the crew’s success or ultimate demise.
– Cons (Negatives)
- Keeping the tiles neatly aligned is a bit of a struggle at times without a raised board edge, yet this is quite minor.
- A bit of luck is needed with the order of the large tiles to create islands and waterways for the crew to traverse.
- The end of the first year is an important feature, yet the solar disc spaces don’t indicate the season changes.
- Some of the tile elements are a little hard to see around the ship, including narrow openings through the water.
Victory Conditions
Find the Passage and Return
- Overall Goal Progress 100%
Goals and Milestones
Complete the map in at least 1 game.
Use only the ship to explore and win in at least 1 game.
Continue the Conversation
What is your favorite part of Expedition: Northwest Passage? Are there any memorable plays when everything went right or wrong? I thought I would have felt like the puzzle was solved by now, but I continue to find different ways to use the ship and sled. Such a wonderful game! I’ll simply have to keep these polar bear lessons in mind next time. Ha!
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