On February 1, the publisher of acclaimed strategy board game Scythe, Stonemaier Games, announced the franchise’s new upcoming sequel called Expeditions and players are already looking forward to it, with a good number having pre-ordered from the official website already.
Expeditions and Building upon the Scythe Legacy
Released in 2016, Scythe is an engine-building game where players must conquer territories, win new recruits, collect resources and fight forward with the help of mechs. The game takes place in an alternate timeline in the year 1920, with each player representing a leader of people who must keep going forward in order to build their honor and faction’s strength. The game itself is average in length, taking about 90 to 115 minutes with 1 to 5 players with around 10 minutes of set-up time.
The sequel, Expeditions, takes players on an adventure to Siberia, in search of meteorite fragments which possess unknown powers. The game needs the same amount of players as the originator of the franchise, only the playtime is a bit different, anywhere from 60 to 90 minutes. Expeditions will allow players to move and explore the Tunguska River, where a massive meteorite crashed. The new map allows players to enhance their mechs, gain items, use workers, and collect cards found amongst the tiles.
The designer behind the game, Jamey Stegmaier, allows us to have a look at the new cards and some of the mechanics, sharing them with Dicebreaker, a respected board game online media. There will be a total of 40 quest cards, five of which will be available face-up for players to pick from as they go along on their journey.Expeditions have a total of 20 locations for players to explore, with 14 face-down and 6 face-up cards at the beginning of the game.
Each location has a pair of quest cards, making the journey even more fascinating and thrilling for the players.
Pick and Solve Quests as You Go Along
A quest card can only be activated on a player’s turn, and it can be completed by using the Solve ability when a player’s mech is on a tile that is associated with the said quest card. The quests can be anything from “recover a stolen map” to “communicate with the beast.” Stegmaier also says that the quest cards have been designed for their matching locations, making them even more thrilling for players.
Even though Expeditions will probably feel similar to Scythe, the two games’ mechanics are quite different as the main focus is on exploration, rather than the euro-based feel of Scythe.
Expected to be released in July 2023, Expeditionswill have a Standard and Deluxe edition. You can obtain the standard edition for the price of $70. The deluxe version will include metal mech miniatures, which will bring the price up to $90.