Board game expansions – add more to the fun!

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Carcassonne board game expansion
Must have original game to play!

When you love a board game and they come out with an expansion, how compelled are you to buy the expansion?

It’s a tough question because board game expansions are much more common with modern board games. Look back just a decade and you won’t see many board game expansions. Sure Monopoly has spawned a ton of different versions, but they aren’t considered expansions. They’re just re-theming the same game and each game plays as a stand-alone.

Settlers of Catan board game expansion
Can’t play without the original game.

Board game expansions on the other hand add new elements to the original game. In order to enjoy a board game expansion, you need to have a copy of the base game (original game). Whereas with different versions of Monopoly, you don’t need an original Monopoly game to play them. You can play the new game all buy itself.

Re-themed games have been a way in the past for game publishers to create new things for their game fans to purchase. However, over the last decade more game publishers have realized the best way to tap into the potential of their game fans is through expansions.

Sure it may seem like a nasty thing for game companies to do – getting us to buy more stuff. But in the end, if it breathes new life into a game that I already love, you bet I’m going to take the bait and buy a copy!

Dominion card game expansion
Are you seeing a trend?

Created equal?
But not all board game expansions are created equal. Some are good, some are ok, and some fall flat and seem like just a money grab by game publishers. Then there are others that are so great we won’t play the original game by itself any more because the expansions makes it a lot more fun.

So the real question is – what board game expansions are worth buying?

King of Tokyo game expansion
When it’s “Expansion #1” you know what’s coming…

Over the next month we’re going to explore this very question in a series of Board Game Expansion Reviews.

We’re going to post short reviews of the board games we love that we’ve bought expansions for and let you know what we think of the expansions we’ve tried. Do they make the game better or not?

Like with board game publishing in general, there are simply too many board game expansions to keep up with. For example, there are plenty of Carcassonne expansions (and even more derivative Carcassonne games) but we’ve only bought 3 of the expansions. So how good are those 3 and will we try any of the others?

We’ve written a few reviews of some board game expansions already, namely:

While we won’t cover all of our game expansions and may combine a few into a single review (like Killer Bunnies), there’s still plenty to cover. Because according to our records, we have over 30 board game expansions!

Here’s our list of board game expansions in alphabetical order:

While we won’t review them in alphabetical order, we do plan to post a review every 2 days, so check back frequently, or subscribe to our posts to conveniently get them in your email.

One thing’s for sure – if you see a board game or card game on the above list, you know we love the original game.

The first game expansions we’ll tackle will be Carcassonne expansions because it’s such a fantastic family board game.

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What board game expansions do you love most?

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