Expeditions: North, Where Mechs Roam and Meteorites Fall
Explore the strange happenings in the wilderness where giant mechs and meteorites dot the landscape in Expeditions.
Will I ever get better about playing every new arrival quickly? Not at all. It’s not even a real question. Ha ha! Yet there are some solo games that make it into the queue early enough. Expeditions was one of those, mainly because I was far too excited about the metal mechs in this Ironclad Edition… And all of the interesting cards to discover during play!
Game Overview
Game Name: Expeditions
Publication Year: 2023
Designer: Jamey Stegmaier
Artist: Jakub Rozalski
Publisher: Stonemaier Games
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Poised to explore the disappearance of a scientist amidst the wreckage of a crashed meteorite, a character travels via massive mech. Exploration is the name of this game! Quests, items, and even meteorite fragments offer unique ways to advance with a mixture of guile and power.
First Play
September 16, 2023
Complexity
3
Latest Play
September 16, 2023
Expansions
0
Setup Time
5 Minutes
Lifetime Plays
4
Play Time
1 Hour
High Score
89
Game Area
36" x 34"
Low Score
47
Far to the North
Perhaps the most important feature of this game centers around the idea of leading an expedition. Guess what’s missing entirely? Combat. That’s right: No battles here!
The focus is on setting out from the southern basecamp to eventually move into the unexplored tile regions.
There is a definite air of mystery with some rather unsettling pieces to the story, yet it’s important to note that there aren’t deathly horrors out there. It’s safe!
OK, maybe not entirely safe, yet the meteorite’s presence is more strange and mysterious than scary and terrifying.
Starting Off Slowly
The solo opponent comes with 5 different levels. Now, I know the rulebook recommends skipping over the easiest difficulty level. That makes sense. However…
I personally like to start at the very bottom so I can work my way up. An easy victory when I’m learning the rules is important, as it tells me I’m capable of winning!
A simple set of instructions allows the solo opponent to operate a pair of mechs, who can be downright terrible.
They mainly get in the way, snapping up map tokens and corruption tiles to earn more victory points.
An Exciting Outing
Well, that was pretty great! My first attempt helped me figure out the rules and general gameplay flow without many issues. I ended up with a pretty excellent journey!
It was interesting to choose how to activate each round. Most involved using 2 of 3 actions: Move, play, and gather.
As I would later find out, having lots of workers was very important. I gained the benefits from played cards, yet also fulfilled the worker requirements for the bonuses.
Tucking the cards like this and keeping an active row of cards was a little unusual, but it wasn’t a problem.
Ka-Choo! Grr-Bom!
Yep: I made sound effects with these mechs. Ha ha! The Ironclad Edition features giant, hefty metal models that are quite a sight to behold. How cool is this one?!
The only downside, excluding the nonstop noises I felt compelled to make, was that I knocked some of the map hexes out of place. Heavy mechs move mountains! Ha!
There isn’t any reason to get a fancy edition besides the appearance… Unless you like your own sound effects?
Despite having very different appearances and base rings in unique colors, I still mixed up my mech once or twice.
Getting to the Heart of What Makes Games Fun
I’ve often talked about this nebulous concept of how much fun a solo game offers. That’s still true, and it remains something that I don’t feel the need to quantify. However, I’ve been thinking more and more about the emotions that board games bring out. In other words, I’m looking at the heart of this hobby and why I love playing games so much!
There are some ideas I have floating around, but it’s been interesting to note that I’m not saying my favorite games are all about 100% positive emotions. It’s more about the strength of those emotions and the memories tied to the experiences. When I see a box on the shelf, I might not know my exact rating, but I know how I feel about it.
Maybe it seems odd to bring feelings and emotions into this realm, yet it’s a topic I’m having a great time thinking about! Even in this case, I had some frustrating moments and potentially a bit of boredom here and there… But those were overshadowed by those times when I felt excited about flipping over map tiles or creative for finding a solution.
Expect some more on this subject as I try to work on some sort of visual model. When I talk about solo board games, I often do so with lots of positive emotions… And the reason is that I associate those with playing. This should also help explain why numerical ratings don’t necessarily equate to a linear ranking scheme. Classic nerdy talk over here. Ha!
Making More Room
I had to readjust my play area in order to reserve some more space to place the active row of cards. There is no discard pile, as cards are laid out on the left or right sides.
This felt a little awkward at times, and I never found the cards that specifically referenced adjacent cards in the active row. Still, it didn’t detract from the exploration.
Flipping over tiles was quite fun, particularly when I had quests early on I wanted to complete. Good luck helped!
Some turns, I decided to move and then gather. It was a bit of a risk, but often paid off with the northern tiles.
The Vanquisher
All of the mechs feature their own nicknames, and this one is called Lumberjack. With the vanquish discount, that meant I had a plan in place right from the start!
Guile and power build up from playing cards or collecting it from hex tiles. The type of corruption on a tile is random, so it often pays to build up both statistics.
Against the level 2 solo opponent, I had another resounding victory. I wondered if I had a rule wrong.
Nope! It simply seemed like I was doing the right thing with tucking lots of cards. So I moved up to level 3…
Session Overview
Play Number: 1-4
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Play Details: Difficulty Levels 1, 2, and 3
Outcome: (2 Wins & 2 Losses)
Even pairing Changa with an awesome item couldn’t help me out! My first couple of victories were quickly erased as I managed some laughably bad scores. Definitely the right difficulty level for me. I had some trouble acquiring cards or picking up workers to help activate their bonuses, but a lot of it came from poor decisions. The focus on the journey and adventure was awesome: No combat here!
%
1 Play
Affordability
Price & Value
6
Functionality
Challenges & Mechanics
9
Originality
Design & Theme
7
Quality
Components & Rules
9
Reusability
Achievement & Enjoyment
9
Variability
Distinctness & Randomness
7
+ Pros (Positives)
- All of the cards are different and present all sorts of fun strategies to try out with combinations and bonuses.
- Exploration is free to take center stage with a distinct lack of combat or anything dangerous to remove progress.
- The solo opponent is easy to operate and offers a nice challenge with a sliding scale of difficulty levels.
- Random corruption tokens make the requirements unpredictable when a map tile is initially flipped over.
- It may not always be present, yet there is an overarching story to each play with the interplay between cards.
- Decisions are very nuanced since tucking a card means it can no longer be used for its core value and bonus action.
– Cons (Negatives)
- The play area feels a little too large with the oversized map tiles and active line of cards that remain face-up.
- Tucking cards makes sense, yet feels a little awkward with the different orientations along the player board sides.
- Some combinations make it difficult to pick up cards, which can slow down the available options significantly.
- As awesome as the theme is, it doesn’t always come through as the symbols and bonuses take precedence.
Victory Conditions
Score the Most Points
- Overall Goal Progress 67%
Goals and Milestones
Win at least 1 game against the level 1 solo opponent.
Win at least 1 game against the level 2 solo opponent.
Win at least 1 game against the level 3 solo opponent.
Continue the Conversation
What are your thoughts about Expeditions? Did you find the right difficulty level for you? I started to warm up to gameplay as soon as I started to struggle, which was enjoyable! There are tons of different cards to see and a whole plethora of possible combinations with the various tucking categories. And whatever you do, don’t forget the mechs!
I played this (not solo) at Dice Tower East. I enjoyed my play, but not enough to buy a copy. I am not sure why I didn’t love it as the game play is the kind of stuff I love. I think I expected more of the theme than I got.
Yeah, I think I was hoping for some flavor text or something else to bring out the theme a bit more, too. It was still enjoyable to think up what was going on, but it was more a case of me having to create the storyline. Lots of fun here from a gameplay standpoint, yet if you really want a theme to come to life, this one might not be the best choice. Glad to hear you had fun when you played, though!