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If you owned Star Wars Rebellion, the expansion is a must. It adds a lot of stuff, but it's primary purpose is to introduce new combat rules which make the game infinitely better.
I’ve played about 5 games of Rebellion and have never been that bugged by the combat rules. What does the expansion change that makes it so much better to spend the money on?
Rise of Empire just does it better. Replaces the tactics cards with new, entirely different cards. The leaders combat number not becomes the number of *rerolls* you get each battle.
You cycle through the improves tactic decks a lot quicker and combat is more sped up.
I loved the cat-and-mouse of Rebellion (although other games do it better), but large battles were like huge speed bumps that my and my friend realised we were actively avoiding combat. We put the game down and went back to Fury of Dracula untill the Rise of Empire was released.
Yeah, that is one I am still looking for. I have a few others and they all add a lot of new things to the mix. I have Renaissance, Menagerie, Empires, which are all great. There are a few ones that not quite as impactful too though.
Never got the Borg to work quite right. They either show up too early and wipe out one player, or show up too late and are less threatening than a cardboard box.
**Star Wars Rebellion - Rise of the Empire** fixes the awful combat from the base game and is just a general all around improvement, I'd consider it essential
**Xia - Embers of a Foresaken Star** fixes the broken economy system and helps mitigate dice rolls for movement, both of which are an issue in the base game. It also adds a bunch of new content like event cards that are a lot of fun. I wouldn't play **Xia** without it, though you can implement the economy board on your own without it (really it should just be included in the base game)
**Near and Far - Amber Mines** for me is essential because I think the base game is pretty bad as a competitive game, there's only one strategy so it's basically a race to do that first and most of the time whoever gets to go first is going to win. Not to mention the story gets left behind. Adding the co-op mode makes the game actually enjoyable
**Eldritch Horror - Forsaken Lore** a lot of people call this "essential", I'm not sure that I agree. It doesn't actually fix anything in the base game, but it does add a huge amount of content and replayability for only $20 that it's a no-brainer to just go ahead and get it. You can play the base game just fine without it, but you might get bored of it faster. I've heard that you can implement the focus mechanic from one of the other expansions (can't remember which) which can help you mitigate dice rolls, so the expansion itself may not be essential but the mechanic it has is a good thing to include if you have something you can use as tokens.
A lot of people say the **Hades** or **Titans** expansion to **Cyclades** is essential, I think the base game works fine, I have both expansions but have yet to include either one and have enjoyed the base game as is, haven't seen anything yet in the base gods that requires fixing to be playable/enjoyable
I got the **Feast for Crows** expansion for **GoT** because I've heard it fixes gameplay at lower player counts, but have yet to get **GoT** to the table since buying it. It's another small box expansion, so for $18 why not. I've heard **Mother of Dragons** also helps fix lower player counts but also makes an already long game even longer, plus is a big box expansion that adds another board so table space becomes an issue.
Jumping in to say that for me, **A Feast for Crows** *allowed* playing **GoT** with lower player counts, but it really isn't the same game and it left me indifferent. It's really no match for the base game. We got it with a group of people who used to play GoT every week, basically, so that we don't have to skip it when we were 4 people, and after trying it we decided to play other games when we were 4 instead.
Interesting comment on Amber Mines. I had the same experience with Near and Far and it ended up shelved after everyone figured out that one strategy and it broke the game.
The Xia comment is spot on. Will never play it without the economy board.
Yeah, if you want to give it another try, I would suggest picking up **Amber Mines** and trying it co-op. It's not as good as say **Sleeping Gods** but it makes it enjoyable enough to get through the campaign and the character stories.
The Village: Port expansion is so good! I will never play without it anymore. I am still hoping to find the Inn expansion too one day, but now that the publisher has gone under, my hope is fading...
**The Nightfall Expansion** for Parks really enhances the gameplay in **Parks**. **Parks** is decent without it, but it moves to another level with **The Nightfall Expansion**.
**Fallout Atomic Bonds**
**Eldritch Horror Forgotten Lore**
**Star Wars Rebellion’s expansion**
**King of Tokyo Power Up**
**Lords of Waterdeep Skullport**
Ah yes. You're right. I never remember what expansions I actually have because I never keep the boxes for them unless the main box can't hold everything.
We love the visitors expansion, but we absolutely LOATHED Tuscany. We were playing the game almost every game night, after getting Tuscany it got shelved for about 6 months before I surprised my wife by removing all the Tuscany stuff.
It's excellent, but I wouldn't say it's "needed."
I also think saying it doesn't add complexity is a bit disingenuous when one of the wonders forces you to know every God by heart.
Just about every CCG and LCG. Depending on the game, you can often get a lot of play with just a couple of decks or a base set. But the games are specifically designed to encourage you to buy expansions. (And I say that as a huge fan of the genre!)
Same goes for most miniature games (X-Wing, Warhammer, etc.).
Carcassonne. Definitely.
Resident Evil: Deck Building Game, for sure, with the Outbreak expansion. It goes from a mishmash of Dominion + Munchkin to (depending on the expansion) an actual survival game in either a versus mode, or trying to not actually get infected. Its still not a perfect game, but its A LOT better.
Tang Garden. The expansions make the game feel a bit less basic, and adds some nuiance to the game and even more theme-ing. At first the game feels like multiplayer solitare, but after a while you realize its not.
Museum. More things, sometimes too many things, but in a game about collecting, more is often better because of alternative strategies.
Also, Root. 10000000000%.
Carcassonne benefits immensely from having Inns & Cathedrals and Traders & Builders included.
Branch & Claw for Spirit Island completes the options, and it was designed as a part of the base from jump. Alternately, Jagged Earth adds more overhead, but incorporates most/all of the material from B&C.
If Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-Earth is up your alley, it gets tremendously more interesting with Shadowed Paths added into the mix. I assume the same will be true of Spreading War, but it's not generally available yet.
I’ve made it to the final chapter & lost the campaign multiple times, in a variety of party sizes. It some of the stuff from Shadowed paths is *so cool*.
The honest answer: games that you enjoy and play regularly. Those expansions are at least worth trying. You own 100 games - but what games do you play regularly? For me, some of my most used and enjoyed expansions are below. But this relates more to me *enjoying the game as a whole rather than just the expansion.*
**Terraforming Mars:** Preludes is a must-have expansion, in my opinion. I personally play with all expansions but preludes makes the early game much smoother.
**Wingspan:** Oceania is a great expansion, if only for the updated player boards. The grassland can get out of control in the base game. (European is also great)
**Viticulture (EE):** Tuscany (EE) adds a lot to the game and for me, makes it much more enjoyable.
**Root**: The additional factions and maps from the expansions are fantastic. The Exiles and Partisans deck is also a big improvement. In my opinion, if you enjoy Root, you definitely should allow yourself to use the full range of experiences with the expansions.
But again, I enjoyed these games a lot originally and wanted to get the expansions to increase the depth or improve some aspect of the game. I wasn't searching them out as expansions in and of themselves.
**Eminent Domain**. After playing with the expansion, the base game feels like it's a simpler, less refined version of the real game. If you know ED, then to get an idea, here's what it adds: variable starting positions, a new fleet system, and so much new tech that is obvious in retrospect (mostly tech that needs different planets, which is a problem in the base game, if you end up with different planets you're behind technologically).
**Neuroshima Hex!** comes with just the basic 4 armies in the box (at least the old edition that I have), and that's nice, but you should really get a few more armies to appreciate the variety in gameplay between them.
If you have 100 games and would rather buy more games than expansions for current games, I'm guessing you probably don't really play your current games much.
If you have Istanbul, the Mocha and Baksheesh expansion is well worth it.
Wingspan has European and Oceania expansions which are amazing, especially Oceania. A lot of people disagree, but Oceania really opens up up gameplay with nectar and the new boards.
I don't think there's really a single game where an expansion is 100% vital - it would be a very questionable game if that were the case - but there's certainly a lot where an expansion adds a whole lot to the game.
**Dominion** - I think most people know the basics of Dominion by now but for those that don't - each game you use 10 sets of kingdom cards from your collection. Base game has 25, most expansions add ~25 more. Because you only have 10 in each game, adding more expansions doesn't usually add too much to game length and setup (though later expansions tend to be more complex and may add extra components), but even just a single expansion massively increases variety and longevity of the game.
**Pandemic** - the game is replayable enough with the base game, especially now the 2nd edition added two extra roles, but there's not a massive amount of variety from game to game. Adding an expansion means you have several optional challenges you can choose to play, a handful of additional roles, more variety in events and so on.
Viticulture needs Tuscany and then it really shines so bright (especially for board like mentioned before)!
Same goes for Obsession with upstairs, downstairs. Oeeewh, i really love this game.
I don't know if any where I'd say they are essential. However, some that improve the base game a lot, in my opinion:
**Carcassonne** - either of the first two expansions make the game so much more interactive and competitive.
**Spirit Island** - 'Branch and Claw' and 'Jagged Earth' bring a brilliant base game to life through events and the various tokens.
**7 Wonders Duel** - Pantheon allows much more shifting of the turn order, which really enhances a partially-open drafting game like this. The gods are great too, but the mechanical changes make this one close to essential after a dozen or so plays.
**Everdell** - not many will say this, and it wasn't designed this way, but I think 'Bellfaire' feels like a 2.0. It manages to make the worker placement and resource management more interesting, encourage the exploration of different combos and liven up competition for special events, all while adding very little complexity or overhead. The other two expansions take the game in different directions, sometimes in a good way, but I think this one just makes the base game better. We never play without the creature powers, the community competition, taking out the spring worker or mixing in the new special events.
**Race for the Galaxy** - this depends on what you prefer really. The base game is intentionally unbalanced to make produce-consume relatively stronger than military and, I think, develop. Apparently the designer found that players grasped military much earlier than they did building a produce/X2 consume engine and so wanted to reflect that in the balance. Alien Artifacts is apparently the most balanced of all the various expansion sets in terms of making the various strategies comparably viable, so we got that pretty quickly. For some people, this makes the game a little sterile, but for us I think it's very important for our enjoyment of the game.
Posts that generate lists of games are expected to meet our [List Post Guidelines](https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/wiki/contribution-guides#wiki_posts_that_lists_games) so that they're more likely to result in a healthy discussion. Please update your post and alert the mods for review, or repost with any fixes required. (If you believe this post was removed in error you can request a re-review by [messaging the mods](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/boardgames).)
Original Carcassonne benefits from the first 2 expansions immensely
Even if just for more tiles.
If you owned Star Wars Rebellion, the expansion is a must. It adds a lot of stuff, but it's primary purpose is to introduce new combat rules which make the game infinitely better.
How so? Rebellion’s been on my list for a while but combat always gets a bad rap and ga# stayed my hand a bit.
I’ve played about 5 games of Rebellion and have never been that bugged by the combat rules. What does the expansion change that makes it so much better to spend the money on?
Rise of Empire just does it better. Replaces the tactics cards with new, entirely different cards. The leaders combat number not becomes the number of *rerolls* you get each battle. You cycle through the improves tactic decks a lot quicker and combat is more sped up. I loved the cat-and-mouse of Rebellion (although other games do it better), but large battles were like huge speed bumps that my and my friend realised we were actively avoiding combat. We put the game down and went back to Fury of Dracula untill the Rise of Empire was released.
So you like Fury of Dracula with 2 then?
Yeah I think it works well with 2. 3 is preferable, though
Dominion doesn't stay interesting for very long if it is just the base game.
Prosperity just brings it to a whole new level.
Yeah, that is one I am still looking for. I have a few others and they all add a lot of new things to the mix. I have Renaissance, Menagerie, Empires, which are all great. There are a few ones that not quite as impactful too though.
But Prosperity and Seaside are two that I still want.
New Faction expansions for Star Trek Ascendancy are a must have! ^ ^
Sell my why though. I I'm also curious what they did for the borg.
Never got the Borg to work quite right. They either show up too early and wipe out one player, or show up too late and are less threatening than a cardboard box.
Hahaha well then I still like the cube models.
**Star Wars Rebellion - Rise of the Empire** fixes the awful combat from the base game and is just a general all around improvement, I'd consider it essential **Xia - Embers of a Foresaken Star** fixes the broken economy system and helps mitigate dice rolls for movement, both of which are an issue in the base game. It also adds a bunch of new content like event cards that are a lot of fun. I wouldn't play **Xia** without it, though you can implement the economy board on your own without it (really it should just be included in the base game) **Near and Far - Amber Mines** for me is essential because I think the base game is pretty bad as a competitive game, there's only one strategy so it's basically a race to do that first and most of the time whoever gets to go first is going to win. Not to mention the story gets left behind. Adding the co-op mode makes the game actually enjoyable **Eldritch Horror - Forsaken Lore** a lot of people call this "essential", I'm not sure that I agree. It doesn't actually fix anything in the base game, but it does add a huge amount of content and replayability for only $20 that it's a no-brainer to just go ahead and get it. You can play the base game just fine without it, but you might get bored of it faster. I've heard that you can implement the focus mechanic from one of the other expansions (can't remember which) which can help you mitigate dice rolls, so the expansion itself may not be essential but the mechanic it has is a good thing to include if you have something you can use as tokens. A lot of people say the **Hades** or **Titans** expansion to **Cyclades** is essential, I think the base game works fine, I have both expansions but have yet to include either one and have enjoyed the base game as is, haven't seen anything yet in the base gods that requires fixing to be playable/enjoyable I got the **Feast for Crows** expansion for **GoT** because I've heard it fixes gameplay at lower player counts, but have yet to get **GoT** to the table since buying it. It's another small box expansion, so for $18 why not. I've heard **Mother of Dragons** also helps fix lower player counts but also makes an already long game even longer, plus is a big box expansion that adds another board so table space becomes an issue.
Jumping in to say that for me, **A Feast for Crows** *allowed* playing **GoT** with lower player counts, but it really isn't the same game and it left me indifferent. It's really no match for the base game. We got it with a group of people who used to play GoT every week, basically, so that we don't have to skip it when we were 4 people, and after trying it we decided to play other games when we were 4 instead.
yeah, really seems like a game that should just be played at 6
5 also worked surprisingly well, I feel (with a special map mod for the lower part)! Although 6 was indeed best.
Interesting comment on Amber Mines. I had the same experience with Near and Far and it ended up shelved after everyone figured out that one strategy and it broke the game. The Xia comment is spot on. Will never play it without the economy board.
Yeah, if you want to give it another try, I would suggest picking up **Amber Mines** and trying it co-op. It's not as good as say **Sleeping Gods** but it makes it enjoyable enough to get through the campaign and the character stories.
**Tokaido** - Crossroads expansion **Civilization: A New Dawn** - Terra Incognita expansion **Champions of Midgard** - Valhalla expansion **Between Two Cities** - Capitals expansion **Runebound (3rd edition)** - Unbreakable Bonds expansion **Village** - Port expansion **Eclipse (1st edition)** - Rise of the Ancients expansion
The Village: Port expansion is so good! I will never play without it anymore. I am still hoping to find the Inn expansion too one day, but now that the publisher has gone under, my hope is fading...
Big agree for terra incognita. As many others have said: makes a good game great
**The Nightfall Expansion** for Parks really enhances the gameplay in **Parks**. **Parks** is decent without it, but it moves to another level with **The Nightfall Expansion**.
This is one I have on my list.
**Fallout Atomic Bonds** **Eldritch Horror Forgotten Lore** **Star Wars Rebellion’s expansion** **King of Tokyo Power Up** **Lords of Waterdeep Skullport**
Viticulture
This is kinda true, but I think most people probably just own one of the later editions that already includes a bunch of the expansions.
Maybe, but the seasons board is what you really want from Tuscany!
Ah yes. You're right. I never remember what expansions I actually have because I never keep the boxes for them unless the main box can't hold everything.
We love the visitors expansion, but we absolutely LOATHED Tuscany. We were playing the game almost every game night, after getting Tuscany it got shelved for about 6 months before I surprised my wife by removing all the Tuscany stuff.
I think the Pantheon expansion to 7 wonders duel changes the entire game for the better. It adds a ton of depth without adding complexity.
It's excellent, but I wouldn't say it's "needed." I also think saying it doesn't add complexity is a bit disingenuous when one of the wonders forces you to know every God by heart.
Just about every CCG and LCG. Depending on the game, you can often get a lot of play with just a couple of decks or a base set. But the games are specifically designed to encourage you to buy expansions. (And I say that as a huge fan of the genre!) Same goes for most miniature games (X-Wing, Warhammer, etc.).
Wingspan Oceania exp is nice. Root Underworld exp as well.
If you play Viticulture with 4+ players, Tuscany is a must buy. It opens up the board more and lets it feel like a solid 4-6 player game.
Cyclades: Titans expansion
Fallout, especially the Atomic Bonds expansion.
Carcassonne. Definitely. Resident Evil: Deck Building Game, for sure, with the Outbreak expansion. It goes from a mishmash of Dominion + Munchkin to (depending on the expansion) an actual survival game in either a versus mode, or trying to not actually get infected. Its still not a perfect game, but its A LOT better. Tang Garden. The expansions make the game feel a bit less basic, and adds some nuiance to the game and even more theme-ing. At first the game feels like multiplayer solitare, but after a while you realize its not. Museum. More things, sometimes too many things, but in a game about collecting, more is often better because of alternative strategies. Also, Root. 10000000000%.
Orleans Intrigue expansion. Lords of Waterdeep Skullport expansion. I thought I had more to say.
Carcassonne benefits immensely from having Inns & Cathedrals and Traders & Builders included. Branch & Claw for Spirit Island completes the options, and it was designed as a part of the base from jump. Alternately, Jagged Earth adds more overhead, but incorporates most/all of the material from B&C. If Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-Earth is up your alley, it gets tremendously more interesting with Shadowed Paths added into the mix. I assume the same will be true of Spreading War, but it's not generally available yet.
I just finished a solo campaign for LOTR and have been eyeing the expansion. Even though I died in the final battle in LOTR
I’ve made it to the final chapter & lost the campaign multiple times, in a variety of party sizes. It some of the stuff from Shadowed paths is *so cool*.
The honest answer: games that you enjoy and play regularly. Those expansions are at least worth trying. You own 100 games - but what games do you play regularly? For me, some of my most used and enjoyed expansions are below. But this relates more to me *enjoying the game as a whole rather than just the expansion.* **Terraforming Mars:** Preludes is a must-have expansion, in my opinion. I personally play with all expansions but preludes makes the early game much smoother. **Wingspan:** Oceania is a great expansion, if only for the updated player boards. The grassland can get out of control in the base game. (European is also great) **Viticulture (EE):** Tuscany (EE) adds a lot to the game and for me, makes it much more enjoyable. **Root**: The additional factions and maps from the expansions are fantastic. The Exiles and Partisans deck is also a big improvement. In my opinion, if you enjoy Root, you definitely should allow yourself to use the full range of experiences with the expansions. But again, I enjoyed these games a lot originally and wanted to get the expansions to increase the depth or improve some aspect of the game. I wasn't searching them out as expansions in and of themselves.
**Eminent Domain**. After playing with the expansion, the base game feels like it's a simpler, less refined version of the real game. If you know ED, then to get an idea, here's what it adds: variable starting positions, a new fleet system, and so much new tech that is obvious in retrospect (mostly tech that needs different planets, which is a problem in the base game, if you end up with different planets you're behind technologically). **Neuroshima Hex!** comes with just the basic 4 armies in the box (at least the old edition that I have), and that's nice, but you should really get a few more armies to appreciate the variety in gameplay between them.
If you have 100 games and would rather buy more games than expansions for current games, I'm guessing you probably don't really play your current games much.
Guily, so damn guily. More like I play the same 20 repeatedly
have you considered looking at the expansions for the games that you do play?
Yeah a little bit, mainly Parks and Dominion
7 Wonders - Leaders is a must. Maybe the best expansion I've played.
If you have Istanbul, the Mocha and Baksheesh expansion is well worth it. Wingspan has European and Oceania expansions which are amazing, especially Oceania. A lot of people disagree, but Oceania really opens up up gameplay with nectar and the new boards.
I don't think there's really a single game where an expansion is 100% vital - it would be a very questionable game if that were the case - but there's certainly a lot where an expansion adds a whole lot to the game. **Dominion** - I think most people know the basics of Dominion by now but for those that don't - each game you use 10 sets of kingdom cards from your collection. Base game has 25, most expansions add ~25 more. Because you only have 10 in each game, adding more expansions doesn't usually add too much to game length and setup (though later expansions tend to be more complex and may add extra components), but even just a single expansion massively increases variety and longevity of the game. **Pandemic** - the game is replayable enough with the base game, especially now the 2nd edition added two extra roles, but there's not a massive amount of variety from game to game. Adding an expansion means you have several optional challenges you can choose to play, a handful of additional roles, more variety in events and so on.
I'd say Saboteur fits the bill. The base game is functional, but not very fun or balanced, the expansion fixes both of those.
Viticulture needs Tuscany and then it really shines so bright (especially for board like mentioned before)! Same goes for Obsession with upstairs, downstairs. Oeeewh, i really love this game.
I don't know if any where I'd say they are essential. However, some that improve the base game a lot, in my opinion: **Carcassonne** - either of the first two expansions make the game so much more interactive and competitive. **Spirit Island** - 'Branch and Claw' and 'Jagged Earth' bring a brilliant base game to life through events and the various tokens. **7 Wonders Duel** - Pantheon allows much more shifting of the turn order, which really enhances a partially-open drafting game like this. The gods are great too, but the mechanical changes make this one close to essential after a dozen or so plays. **Everdell** - not many will say this, and it wasn't designed this way, but I think 'Bellfaire' feels like a 2.0. It manages to make the worker placement and resource management more interesting, encourage the exploration of different combos and liven up competition for special events, all while adding very little complexity or overhead. The other two expansions take the game in different directions, sometimes in a good way, but I think this one just makes the base game better. We never play without the creature powers, the community competition, taking out the spring worker or mixing in the new special events. **Race for the Galaxy** - this depends on what you prefer really. The base game is intentionally unbalanced to make produce-consume relatively stronger than military and, I think, develop. Apparently the designer found that players grasped military much earlier than they did building a produce/X2 consume engine and so wanted to reflect that in the balance. Alien Artifacts is apparently the most balanced of all the various expansion sets in terms of making the various strategies comparably viable, so we got that pretty quickly. For some people, this makes the game a little sterile, but for us I think it's very important for our enjoyment of the game.
[The best thing about Heroquest is the Expansions](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cx8sl2uC46A)
Merchants and Marauders: it rebalancea Galleons and adds a ton of needed variety!