Last night was once again a Fenland Gamers club night.

Last night numbers were slightly down. But we had enough for a couple of tables. One table played The Warriors board game. Which if you are under a certain age have no idea it’s based on a 1970s movie. Mind you Jonathan had no idea it was a movie either. I think the only person playing it familiar with the source material was Dave. I’d be interested in giving it a try. I do like the movie.

Our table got to play the latest hotness, the sequel to Stonemaier Games second biggest selling game (it was the top until Wingspan came out) Scythe, Expeditions.

Every copy of Expeditions has an achievements sheet included. One side are the achievements to record names against. The other side is an extract from a captains journal (see below).

It turns out thanks to a really observant individual on the games Facebook group that there are different versions of this journal page. In less than 24 hours the group has managed to identify at least 17 different ones (it may be all of them now).

It’s suspected there are 20 different journal pages. Jamey did say there was a hint to the number in the photo. Which I have zoomed in on below. Which seems to confirm the number 20.

What’s even cooler is that Jamey signed 20 of these sheets and they were randomly placed in copies of the game!

My copy of Expeditions was the iron clad edition, with the add-on metal coins. The difference between the iron clad edition and the standard are the amazing metal mechs instead of plastic ones.

The production of the game is up to the usual gold standard set by Stonemaier Games. The setup of the game is made super easy by the games insert. With a great storage tray that holds the coins, worker meeples, and map tokens. Thus can be taken straight out of the box and used on the table.

The art is just out of this world. Jakub Rozalski is just amazing. I love the whole world he has built with it. That 1920’s alternative history with the mechs. Love it.

Story wise Expeditions takes place after the events in Scythe and the Rise of Fenris expansion. We shift from Europa to “…Siberia, where a massive meteorite crashed near the Tunguska River, awakening ancient corruption.” It’s our job to venture North to investigate this meteorite crash.

There is a darker tone to the plot line and art. I’m trying to think of a way to best describe the theme/tone. I think Scythe meets Cthulhu might best describe it.

There are some Easter eggs within the game. It wouldn’t be a Stonemaier game without them. There are two cards named after other titles in the Stonemaier catalogue (Charterstone and Scythe). Plus Jamey’s two cats feature on a card (see below).

We started off as a five player game, however three quarters of the way through our fifth player had to leave.

This first game took three and a half hours. But at full player count (for the majority of the game), and two players that suffer from analysis paralysis is it any surprise?

Once setup Expeditions is a table hog, and was a very tight fit with five of us round the table.

However the game has a table presence that is made with the large metal mechs.

The base snaps didn’t fit perfectly on one or two of the metal mechs. But I think that might improve over time.

For those thinking this is going to be like Scythe, it is not. There are a couple of similar mechanics, such as not being able to repeat an action twice, the victory track and glory tokens, and there are mechs! This plays completely differently. There is no confrontation/interaction between players apart from blocking another player getting to a space by occupying it yourself.

I love how the card titles help tell the story of the game. But having multi use cards that you have to decide when to stop using them for their ability and turn them into say an upgrade for the mech, a solved mission or meld a piece of meteorite is a cool.

There is also having to know when to do a refresh action to move cards from your activated area back to your hand. It’s a tough decision. It’s all you do on a turn. But the payoff is getting a powerful next turn. Although I did find it more useful doing the refresh action on a tile instead once one was revealed.

Being able to utilise not only your Commander and their animal companions abilities, but also your mechs is really important. I played Olga with Changa, naturally. I also had the highlander mech which meant I could put gained cards straight into my hand.

If Marcin hadn’t triggered the end of the game I would have on my next turn. Marcin also went on to win as well. But the point difference between us was from him having vanquished more corruption than me.

I had a blast playing Expeditions and can’t wait to play it again. I think this will be finding a place in my top 10 games.