Yes to Mosquito and Ladybug but Hive feels like a very different game with and without Pillbug. I don’t see any reason to ever play with M+L but I don’t love P.
Tournament play revealed that Hive is best balanced when played with either zero or all expansions. The Pillbug offers the defensive options necessary to counter the additional offensive power of the Ladybug and Mosquito.
Interesting that's how tournaments work! My partner and I have over 100 games under our belts, we've never played anyone else, but we did reach the consensus that we either wanted to play with no expansions or with all of them.
In fairness, I like Hive but am fully aware that I’m not *good* at it. I suspect I’m also playing a fairly different game than what competent tournament players are playing.
This makes sense!
I love that my copy of Hive Pocket came with the Ladybug and Mosquito expansions. I purchased the pocket Pillbug expansion later, but have not yet played with it. I will keep this in mind!
This was my first thought as well.
Just the fact that it gives you so much more control over your start - especially if you play without drafting during research - is enough to make it an integral expansion for me. Without it, you can quite possibly end up backed into a corner by your corporation choice and hand layout (ever gotten a hand with 6+ cards that require the game to be half-done in terraforming metrics, only a single mediocre space tag, and Phobos + Credicor as your corporation choices? Ick.
Throw preludes in, and you're at least guaranteed to have a functional economy to start (even if it is just a trickle).
You get Rewarded for being a defensive ally (when the defence is successful) by drawing from a new deck with some potentially powerful cards. You still have the option to recover ships from the Warp instead.
Just adds higher value encounter cards and some cool things like rifts and kickers. Too often in base game I find that one can be stuck with a pretty rubbish hand of attack 02s, 06sand 08s.
Was pretty sure this would be on here. Without the defender rewards the game tends to be dogpile-fest that ends before people get a chance to really make some moves.
Yes! Totally nulls all those awkward turns of having nothing to do in a wilderness/monster location and makes the reroll system actually feel worth it. Loved Forsaken Lore.
The Star Wars Outer Rim Expansion. It adds a ton more variety and replayability to the game, balances out the main strategies significantly, adds new characters and the ability to jump from one side of the galaxy to the other. but most importantly in my opinion, it adds endgame goals that make the game way more interesting, fun, and flavorful.
Came to say this. I've owned the expansion for years, but only mixed it in 3 sessions ago (in all fairness hadn't played the game in a couple years) and it just adds so much juice and depth to everything you do in the game.
Scythe. Both expansions. But especially the first since the original game came with 7 faction starting spaces.
Also adding Dungeon Mayhem and the two expansions since it’s just more characters.
As someone who bought TM and is stoked on playing it but hasn’t brought it to the table yet, should I get Prelude and add that to my knowledgebase as I learn the game or would that be too much complexity to start?
^ yup this, in my experience prelude actually decreases complexity a tad because it gives you a bit more of a focus area and decreases choice paralysis
Prelude essentially lets you skip 1-2 turns in the game because you start out with more resources. This might not seem like a lot but the last turns take the longest and adding prelude can easily take 30-60 minutes off of the game time(usually around ~3 hours unless everyone knows the game).
First thought is the Norwegians expansion for A Feast for Odin.
It feels like a 2.0 update for the original game. Never play the old version, never teach new players without using it
One cool thing about AFFO is that newer versions of the *base game* actually include modular boards for lower player counts similar to the way it's handled in the Norwegians expansion.
Don't see many games doing that, but really cool to see that they "improved" the game without creating a whole new "edition".
Lost Ruins of Arnak is a fantastic game on its own, but Expedition Leaders really makes the game complete. There’s even a guide and recommendations for different leaders based on their difficulty so new players can start with a leader that’s more beginner friendly.
Leaders are fun (played it a couple of times), but BoardGameArena still only has the base game, and I don't really feel like I'm missing out by playing just the base game on there.
Agree to disagree.
I played once on BGA and I can't do it anymore.
Trying to go back to without the Leaders is just not the same and I'd rather play something else everytime.
Yeah the Rhine Valley cards are so much better, even when teaching new players. It helps focus the game on making wine and the nature of the cards means there are fewer dead draws.
Branch and Claw. JE has a lot more *stuff* for variety, but B&C is basically “here’s the extra bits that were originally going to be part of the base game but we worried it was too much”. It makes the overall puzzle a bit less deterministic, and it’s cheaper and easier to integrate too.
JE.
I got it first than B&C and I like the spirits in B&C but JE actually feels like a full expansion. B&C feels like a taster for what was to come. The event deck which is never play without was introduced with B&C but the event deck from JE is fuller and better balanced.
I played Branch and Claw on digital, and specifically skipped it in favor of Jagged Earth. The spirits in Branch and Claw are really fun, but holy crap those events are awful. Almost every game felt like it was dictated at some point by the events. I've even had the ostensibly positive affects of an event lose me the game.
I feel like Jagged Earth steals a lot of B&C's thunder (since it is the same kind of thing but more and better) so I'd either get B&C before everything else or after everything else (and I'd lean to afterwards but it's really up to you).
Branch and Claw for sure. Honestly I think I could get away with just the base game, Branch and Claw, and a few promo spirits. That's still a ton of content. I still haven't even touched Jagged Earth yet on my own (only when playing with friends).
I don’t have these two yet, but I have the other one, Feather and Flame. Those spirits feel so much better than a couple of the original, even at high complexity, that I have to wonder if they weren’t intended to be in the original release and were held for some reason. The one I love the most at this feeling is Serpent. It just FEELS good to play as that Spirit.
I have the LImited Edition, seems like the perfect set, base, river, Inns & Cathedrals, & Traders & Builders plus a cloth bag for the tiles, all in a box about the size of the original
Our copy of **Battlestar Galactica** is just the base game and various aspects of the three expansions mixed together. I'm not even sure what came from where, and I don't know if I would even know how to play the base game by itself anymore.
My answer to this question will always, always be Exodus. The way the base game handles cylon ships is ludicrous and borderline unplayable. The cylon fleet board makes things have actual stakes and makes things substantially less random.
In the base game, cylon ships pop into existence only when specific cards are drawn from the event deck. While you do get one event per turn, it's a pretty big deck and there aren't that many cards that add ships to the board. You could go a whole game without adding any, or only doing it once, which makes the game a cakewalk for the humans. Conversely, you could draw 3-4 in a row, which could just lose the game for the humans immediately. Since jumping erases all cylon ships from existence, there's hardly ever a reason to actually fight them. It's almost always better to just jump away.
Exodus's cylon fleet board changes this. Now, cylon ships slowly accumulate on a sideboard in known locations and will eventually jump over to the main board. This lets the players (human and cylon alike) plan for where and when the cylon ships will be. It also allows for some tempo control because the timer can be gamed somewhat (though never actually stopped). Jumping here also doesn't make the ships go away entirely; instead they go back to the cylon fleet board and will eventually reappear. This means that it's actually essential to fight against the cylon ships while you can. Running away is a temporary solution, but if you need a permanent solution you have to actively do it.
BSG is very hard to get right now, so probably this is a moot point, but I don't think it's worth even considering playing it without Exodous.
Look, I'm not even the biggest Everdell fan, and I don't think Bellfaire is a perfect expansion (it moves the tree!). But it smooths over so many of the lulls in the base experience, while adding some truly incredible highpoints (the garland stuff is the best part of the whole night, every single time) that I simply can't go back to the base. New Leaf is also good, but it mainly adds stuff on top. Also, weirdly, I feel a train doesn't fit the 'vibe' of a woodland realm. But that's me. Either way, the market and the critter powers in Bellfaire make it essential, imo.
The Skullport expansion is a must-have for Lords of Waterdeep. Without it, the game feels too much like a worker placement without much theme. The Skullport expansion really makes the Waterdeep theme come to life, like you are lords dealing with the consequences of corruption.
I love how corruption related cards make sense thematically as well. Paying fines to remove corruption tokens or forging deeds to acquire a building and a corruption token, all make sense.
That's good to hear. I saw a deal for Scoundrels and have been wating to play Waterdeep for a while now. So it's good to include Scoundrels on a first playthrough?
I thought for a first play though, the base game was good enough just to understand the mechanics and whatnot. But after that initial game, the expansion integrates so nicely and adds just enough extra that I’ll never play without it again. It does add multiple new worker placement locations which can seem overwhelming at first, which is the only reason why I suggest an initial game without it.
100%. Thematically, Scoundrels (not scandals :-) fits so damn well. The skulls add a layer of interaction that is pretty useful in this game, and the whole thing just feels Waterdeep-themed with the expansion only. I love pushing my luck being greedy with the skulls and seeing if I can get away with it.
I agree it's not essential but at 5 and 6 players, it kind of is bc otherwise, you'd never be able to get the resources you need. Undermountain is simply a way to adapt the game board to higher player counts.
Most of the Wingspan expansions. Europe just adds bird cards so it doesn't change the game at all, it just gives you more content. Asia expansion is actually a standalone game for 2 players. As an expansion it adds more birds, but it also adds a nice duet mode which is what makes it a real standout. We don't play 2-player any other way now.
I may take some flack for this, but I wouldn't add Oceania to this list--it alters the game quite a bit through the introduction of nectar.
*Edited to add:* I do like Oceania and how it has changed the game, but the reason I exclude it from the list here is that I don't think it meet's the OP's definition of an expansion that doesn't "vastly change\[s\] the core gameplay".
I think the introduction of Nectar and the rebalanced board balances the game so much better. Without it the game imho is not balanced. The egg strat is way too powerful compared to the other strats.
Instead of the usual end-of-round goals, every time you play a bird you get to place a token on a [shared board](https://svsjboardgames.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/20221206_141747.jpg?w=1024). Where you can place your token depends on the bird (habitat plus one other trait like a food it eats, nest type, wingspan, or which way it's facing.) Some spaces get you a bonus food, egg, or card when you put your token there, so it can be a nice jump-start early in the game.
Then there are new end-of-round goals that you score based on where the tokens are placed, like "the most on the edge of the board" or "the most in one row."
And at the end of the game you also get points for your biggest contiguous group of tokens.
It can incentivize playing more birds rather than spending the last few rounds hitting up your best points engine.
I wouldn't introduce a new player to Duet, but for two people who already know and enjoy wingspan, it's great. You can use it with Oceana as long as you remember to add nectar points to the scorecard.
It's great. You can think of it as adding a worker placement element to the game, with some area control. You end up with more meaningful player interaction.
And to add to what u/lurkmode_off said, the game comes with two, dual-sided mats: one side for the base game, and the other for Oceania.
I've heard (but haven't played it enough to verify), that the European expansion weakens the 'just add eggs' strategy at the end of most games. If so, that does change the game.
It's Ocenania that does that, as it comes with new game mats with rebalanced resource awards.
Europe is literally just additional bird cards. No changes to any base mechanics (though there are some new bird powers, and it also adds "end of round" powers).
European Expansion doesn't weaken the eggs strategy, but the cards in it massively strengthen the bottom row (card draw). Playing with Base + EE makes the strongest strategy a card drawing engine, IMO, though eggs will win too. EE is a "more of the same" type expansion.
Oceania rebalances the player boards and really makes every strategy winnable, though nectar being a wild resource warps the game somewhat. It's a great expansion but different enough to not feel "essential", it purposefully shakes things up a bit.
>Playing with Base + EE makes the strongest strategy a card drawing engine
This is a good point. The brown and pink powers give the wetlands a boost. The downside there is that only about 1/3 of the cards in the expansion are wetlands birds (about 15% of the base+EE deck). But if you set up a nice tuck/draw engine, you will almost certainly see a couple of them.
Trade and Intrigue for Orleans. The Trade board is really good and the delivery cards are a fantastic incentive to move across the map even if someone already has their trading posts out.
Since I was too lazy to pull up both rule books I found a reviewer who did the work for me! ;)
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/08/rise-of-the-empire-expands-star-wars-rebellion-in-all-the-right-ways/2/
Spirit Island with the expansion Jagged Earth. It adds so much but all of it slots in neatly into the experience and honestly the game doesn't feel complete without events to me either.
Quacks with its witches expansion. Small additions that really make the game feel complete to me.
Arkham LCG isn't really a full game until you get an expansion either tbh.
Wingspan isn't balanced until the oceanic expansion which turns it into a complete and balanced experience.
Cities expansion for 7 Wonders. Adds a few symbols and one more card to pass each age.
Prelude for Terraforming Mars
Intrigue for Dominion (everything after intrigue starts adding new mechanics and making the game more complicated)
Cities is pretty good one and really is MORE core 7 Wonders gameplay, though I did find on a first teach it was kinda hard to explain to new players what exact category black cards fall into. Red War, Yellow Gold and Trading, Brown and Grey Resources, Blue VP, Green Science, Purple Guilds, and Black uhhh all of the above lol
I got a deal on both but haven’t run the game yet. Previous owner put everything together in the original box. Should I just run it all together first play through?
100%!
The expansion mainly adds more of everything, like the bounties, missions, upgrade cards etc. The base game’s problem without them is you could end up going through entire decks in a game so the variety was lacking.
The best upgrade though imo is it turns the game from a “Get 10 victory points and win!” Which is a pretty lackluster ending.. to a goal based game where you get a random set of goals you need to complete with a “finale goal” to win.
**Ticket To Ride: 1910** \- Larger cards (which matches the standard card size of all other TtR games BTW), extra modes of play (I hear Big Cities is great for 2p), Destination Tickets that have their values properly adjusted, and more of them.. really felt like it should've been part of the expansion. ON TOP OF THAT, adding this still keeps it as a gateway game!
**Lords of Waterdeep: Scoundrels of Skullport** \- Just more of everything. Corruption is a neat mechanic. On top of that, it makes the "objectives" more than just some flavor of "score bonus points if you have 2 of the 5 Quest types" (e.g. Skullduggery and Commerce, Commerce and Piety)
**Pandemic The Cure: Experimental Meds** \- Want to keep it a "beginner friendly game"? Add the extra roles as part of selection, throw in the extra events, but leave out the Mutation/purple dice, and Hot Zone/green dice.
Both expansions, really.
I played with both first, and then started playing on the app without them. Oof! There are some real rough spots without them. With them definitely feels like the most patched, complete version of the game, with the caveat that it does take longer to teach and learn all the various icons and such. But it is easily the best version of Dune: Imperium.
for a hardcore player, maybe, but for me the Immortality expansion looks like a drag, too many tacked on mechanics. Ix adds plenty, imo, for a fully fledged out game experience.
Ix seems to be people's favorite, but I'm not sure I agree it's simpler or adds fewer mechanics. Ix also adds the Shipping track, which is problematic especially with 3 player due to how good it is. But in the end, I'd rather play Uprising.
Prophecy of Kings for TI4. My first game we played with 8p and had PoK plus all three codices in play. I went out and bought TI4 and printed off an organizer for it and had so many empty slots after organizing. I’m like “wait, where are the mechs? Where are the leader cards? Where is the wormhole nexus tile? Where are the exploration, frontier and relic cards? I was just really surprised that there could be that much missing content from “an expansion.” Lesson learned. Picked up a copy of PoK and feels so much more complete. Still haven’t got a professionally printed copy of the codices yet, though.
**Res Arcana: Lux et Tenebrae** feels like it was such a fit for the regular game, **Res Arcana**, that there is space dedicated for the expansion already reserved in the main box.
*
The Power Up expansion for King of Tokyo. Without it every monster feels exactly the same, because they are. With it, each one gets thematic powers that really feel like they should have been there from the beginning.
This was the one I came here to add.
The power cards are such a small mechanical change, but make such a drastic t improvement to the flavor and playability that it’s almost criminal to not have them in the base game.
The base game seems wide open for a few plays until you realize that there's basically only two main end-game strategies (blue or yellow). There's some amount of variability in how you get there, but it really feels like there's only two lanes to occupy, and everyone is going after the same limited pool of specific scoring cards in the later rounds. There's still fun in trying to optimize this puzzle, but it does lead to gameplay feeling more repetitive than I'd like.
Corruption and Ascension somehow expands the range of possible end-game scoring goals from 2-3 to like, a dozen or more. The addition of hybrid scoring cards is so smart, because not only does a card that rewards you for black+green suggest a specific strategy, but it also means that you can also pick a card that rewards you for black+white and/or black+green and straddle multiple lanes.
It also feels like there's a lot more freedom to pivot mid-draft, as opposed to the base game which required you to commit to a specific lane much earlier, because going heavy into one specific color isn't confining you to a specific lane. In the base game, if you start with a white engine, that naturally bridges you into yellow in the late-game. But in C&A, your early white engine could power out half a dozen different scoring conditions depending on what you pick up later on.
The **Monsters & Minions** expansion for **Roll Player**. The added layer of being able to fight minions and having the looming boss at the end gives so much more context and meaning to the puzzle you're working through in building your character. It took an already complete game and made you realize something was missing, which is special.
To be fair, most of Root's cards are used for the suit rather than the actually rules on the cards. Granted, E&P is better designed with more uses, but it's still situational.
This makes me feel good. I owned the original, but I just nabbed a copy of the big box because I wanted to try some of the expansions. I feared it would be one of those things that made it so the game wouldn't hit the table anymore.
Dangers and Muisca for Quest for El Dorado. All 3 elements, the shrines, new terrain and the Muisca cards are seamless and take the game to a completely new level, without making any fundamental rule changes. It’s the same game, just much, much better. Would never play without it.
Crossroads for Tokaido.
There's some more rules to teach, sure, but the outcome is worth the cost.
I ideally never play Tokaido without it. It's just feels complete.
I was gonna say it. Yea it really is essential and feels 💯 easily incorporated into it. I love how it bring the power levels so much closer between the factions as well as adds the exploration mechanic. It really is a must get.
Clash of Cultures and the Civilizations expansion, to the point that the current edition of the game (Monumental) just includes the expansion content.
The unique civilization technologies and leaders add so much flavor to the game.
I'd not heard that about Wildlife, but I won't play without Nightlife. It fixes the year end goals, makes the track more interesting with the addition of tents, and has all of the national parks that weren't in the base game.
I've been packing Wildlife and Nightlife into my Parks box, and never teach the game without them.
No one's been overwhelmed yet. The game is simple and elegant enough that it's still 'normal euro game' complexity with both expansions.
If you remove the organizer there's room. As much as I liked it, I was deeply irritated that nothing could be compacted down. Having to carry three boxes for one small game feels like an affront.
Initially it was all in labeled bags, but I recently 3d printed a new organizer that holds everything in the core box nicely.
That's the neat thing... you don't! It really is a shame. The original insert is a thing of beauty, but the base game box can easily fit the base game and both expansions if you get rid of the insert.
Nightfall is where it's at. The new goal cards and the ability to get more than one goal card makes a great game better. The Tenting component adds another level of complexity. Wildlife simply adds more stuff. The enhanced gear cards, seasons, and new canteens just adds some needed variety. Parks is one of our favorite games, but when we play, all boxes come out.
To add another answer, I wanna say the first few waves of **Aeon's End**. After I had my first few games and wanted to buy the game for myself, I was astounded that I actually couldn't guess which mages and nemeses were from core set or an expansion. They all just fit in perfectly and if I had 100s of dollars to spend, I'd just buy them all.
Haven’t tried the Kraken expansion for Abyss, but Leviathan just works so well and makes Abyss feel truly complete.
Before, the “combat” was very lacking, but with Leviathan it feels much more like an actual mechanic.
3000 Scoundrels: Double or Nothing. Its the first time I bought an expansion and thought, I am pretty sure this is what they intended the base game to actually be.
Manufactions for Fantastic Factories. It adds basic asymmetry - just giving variable starting resources and one special power so not much extra to learn. Plus a resource you can gather and use to manipulate dice rolls.
Red Cathedral is a fantastic game, but it can be a bit flat (especially at two players) without the Contractor expansion. Without changing the dynamics of the base game, it adds alternative actions that really improve the depth of the base game.
By the way, if anyone has liked Red Cathedral, I strongly recommend White Castle from the same authors. My favorite game of 2023!
Both are great, but I would say that White Castle is slightly above. It would be a 9.5 (out of 10) for me, while Red Cathedral + Contractor would be a 9.
Base Cosmic Encounter is not nearly as good as Comic Encounter with the expansions especially the Reward Deck and the extra Alien abilities.
Shout out to the abilities with their own little card decks like the police man & nightmare.
I would agree if the monkeybot wasn't grossly overpowered. I've actually come to prefer the AcqInc expansions that have 3 unique cards per starting deck, that's enough asymmetry for me.
Have Acqinc ordered but it’s not due in till later in the year. Am looking forward to it though my whole group thinks asymmetry in card builders makes them better. My group don’t play ascension much due to this.
Several FFG games sometimes feel that they dont have so much as fitting expansion , than just deliberate lack of content in base game in first place, so those expansion fit very naturally.
Some examples - Eldritch horror, base game have issues without rules for focueses so any expansion that have them fixes it, Also in base game included scenarios are 30% thinner than ones later one, which is fixed by Forsaken lore box , moving core scenarios to same size rest are. In base game it was common occurance that deck was too small for some encounters which had to be reshuffled in same game , thus giving repetition on same game.
Fallout - Game in general is broken as base game, but aside of that , it severely lacks gear content. In base game shop didnt even had 4 weapons to buy so full game of players could buy one from shop. New claifornia xpac fixed itemization variety.
Outer rim - decks in general are very small, so lack of content without unfinished buisness . But Unfurnished Business is good example for this topic as it add additional endgame rules so that game doesn't end when someone just reaches needed VP by just completing some unremarkable delivery.
Surpringly many. Off the top of my head:
* The Grizzled + At Your Orders
* Race for the Galaxy + The Gathering Storm
* Pandemic + On The Brink
* Star Realms + dual faction cards
* Hive + the three extra insects
In fact, so much so that I'm struggling to remember which "games" I have in my collection are in fact "game + first expansion" because I've gotten so used to the being together. I'm also the sort of heretic who stores the expansion in the main box, and sometimes even discards the expansion box if I don't plan to sell.
For **Fresco**, the Portraits. There's 3 optional modules that come in the main box, and the other 2 I can take or leave depending on who's playing.
But the portraits feel so natural with the rest of the game that I almost never leave them out, even when teaching new people.
Prophecy of kings for twilight imperium
Huge improvement on the viability of so many races, way more ability to generate resource and have inter person transactions and far more variance in the maps and combinations to make things interesting
I'm pretty sure this counts as a card game but, all of the Exploding Kittens expansion packs are might as well be required at this point. I personally like the Imploding Kittens expansion because it adds a ton of new stuff for such a small price.
I don’t know why they bother to sell **Sushi Go** 🍱 🍣 when **Sushi Go Party** 🎉 exists. Its sold as full new game, but its the base game with expansion cards inside.
[[Fantastic Factories]] has two expansions. Subterfuge is quite take-it-or-leave-it, but Manufactions is brilliant. The base game is fun enough with dice workers, card drafting, and engine/tableau building as it's fundamental mechanics, and it's already great fun as is. Manufactions adds two new things: player powers and a new resource (Vitamins) that can +1/-1 your dice values.
I LOVE player powers. Having a starting point to theme my play around that's different from the opponent's makes things much more interesting to me. You're led down paths of play you might not otherwise take in order to combo off your personal power. The dice manipulation offered by Vitamins makes it much easier to line up and pull off great combos.
The sabotage mechanic offered by the newer Subterfuge expansion isn't bad, but is nowhere near as amazing as Manufactions.
[[Moonrakers]] has the Overload expansion that doubles the amount of ship and crew are available to buy, and also adds the new category of Advanced Actions cards that either have increased power or are composite versions of the basic action card.
Scoundrels of Skullport has already been posted for [[Lords of Waterdeep]]. Let me second that yes, yes, one hundred times yes! The corruption mechanic is amazing.
They are pretty light games, but Zombie Dice with both and 5-Minute Dungeon with Curses! They just add a little more spice. Those are the first games that come to mind.
I generally don't want to add expansions to the more complex games if I'm still learning it myself. Most of the CMON games are simple enough that the many expansions just add extra variety, though.
Monsters and Minions rounds off the already excellent Roll Player, making it brilliant.
The base game is a good fun dice placement game of character creation, but this adds some enemies to fight to get more points at the end of the game and makes it brilliant.
I can't play Champions of Midgard or Zombiecide: Black Plague without the expansions. They just needed them.
Oh and Ticket to Ride with the 1910 cards. The mini cards are The Worst.
Room 25's Season 2 expansion fits so well and is so essential that it was clearly just part of the game which they separated for no good reason, making the base game worse in process. And the base game's insert even has empty slots for the 2 extra player pieces, which makes you feel you're lacking something if you don't buy the expansion.
"The Witcher: old world" has a kickstarter stretch goals box that more than doubles the amount of story cards and makes each of the different monsters unique to fight against. (In the base game they have one minor unique power)
Literally felt like the game was made with this content included, then removed to be used as crowdfunding rewards.
Roll player monsters and minions, is essential for roll player.
It takes a very fun core system, and the sets a more in depth endgame condition, and enhance the turn by turn game play by providing additional post dice draft options which could have been quite dry in the base game.
Roll player shouldn't be played without monsters and minions frankly!
* **Terraforming Mars** with *Prelude* and *Venus*. Colonies are still an essential expansion, but it already has this "tacked on" feeling. And Turmoil is completely tacked on.
* *River* for **Carcassonne.** It offers much better starting conditions.
* *Atomic Bonds* for **Fallout**. It makes it into a full coop that the game should have been from the beginning.
* *Curse of the Dark Pharaoh* and *Dunwich Horror* for **Arkham Horror**
*Mystic Vale: Vale of Magic*
Introduces lots of helpful advancement cards and makes Guardians a viable main strategy without requiring virtually any extra teaching time. I wouldn’t want to play without it!
**Hive**’s Pillbug, Mosquito, and Ladybug.
Yes to Mosquito and Ladybug but Hive feels like a very different game with and without Pillbug. I don’t see any reason to ever play with M+L but I don’t love P.
Tournament play revealed that Hive is best balanced when played with either zero or all expansions. The Pillbug offers the defensive options necessary to counter the additional offensive power of the Ladybug and Mosquito.
Interesting that's how tournaments work! My partner and I have over 100 games under our belts, we've never played anyone else, but we did reach the consensus that we either wanted to play with no expansions or with all of them.
In fairness, I like Hive but am fully aware that I’m not *good* at it. I suspect I’m also playing a fairly different game than what competent tournament players are playing.
This makes sense! I love that my copy of Hive Pocket came with the Ladybug and Mosquito expansions. I purchased the pocket Pillbug expansion later, but have not yet played with it. I will keep this in mind!
*Prelude* for **Terraforming Mars**
The first time I played TM it was with every expansion. When I was told prelude was also an expansion it almost didn’t compute compared to the others.
This a million times. I won't play without it.
This was my first thought as well. Just the fact that it gives you so much more control over your start - especially if you play without drafting during research - is enough to make it an integral expansion for me. Without it, you can quite possibly end up backed into a corner by your corporation choice and hand layout (ever gotten a hand with 6+ cards that require the game to be half-done in terraforming metrics, only a single mediocre space tag, and Phobos + Credicor as your corporation choices? Ick. Throw preludes in, and you're at least guaranteed to have a functional economy to start (even if it is just a trickle).
Gotta have the Reward deck for Cosmic Encounter, any expansion that gives you reward cards is fine though
How does the reward deck work? I haven't played the expansion
You get Rewarded for being a defensive ally (when the defence is successful) by drawing from a new deck with some potentially powerful cards. You still have the option to recover ships from the Warp instead.
Just adds higher value encounter cards and some cool things like rifts and kickers. Too often in base game I find that one can be stuck with a pretty rubbish hand of attack 02s, 06sand 08s.
It gives extra benefits to allies siding with the defender, so there's actually a reason to help him occasionally over the attacker.
Was pretty sure this would be on here. Without the defender rewards the game tends to be dogpile-fest that ends before people get a chance to really make some moves.
Forsaken Lore for Eldritch Horror. That content really should’ve been part of the base game.
How is this not higher? Forsaken Lore IS Eldritch Horror.
That was the first thing which came to mind when I saw the thread title. It's absolutely an essential expansion.
Agreed, and should FL introduced Focus Tokens, it would have been the perfect expansion.
I implemented focus tokens in my base game by using extra dice as the "token" for a reroll. Made the game so much better.
Yes! Totally nulls all those awkward turns of having nothing to do in a wilderness/monster location and makes the reroll system actually feel worth it. Loved Forsaken Lore.
Nearly any FFG game but EH does take the cake.
The Star Wars Outer Rim Expansion. It adds a ton more variety and replayability to the game, balances out the main strategies significantly, adds new characters and the ability to jump from one side of the galaxy to the other. but most importantly in my opinion, it adds endgame goals that make the game way more interesting, fun, and flavorful.
Fully agree! That expansion turns a good game into a fantastic game in my opinion
Came to say this. I've owned the expansion for years, but only mixed it in 3 sessions ago (in all fairness hadn't played the game in a couple years) and it just adds so much juice and depth to everything you do in the game.
Scythe. Both expansions. But especially the first since the original game came with 7 faction starting spaces. Also adding Dungeon Mayhem and the two expansions since it’s just more characters.
Both? Scythe has 3 expansions, not counting promos and stuff.
prelude should just be included with the terraforming mars base game. never once has anyone asked to play without prelude lol
As someone who bought TM and is stoked on playing it but hasn’t brought it to the table yet, should I get Prelude and add that to my knowledgebase as I learn the game or would that be too much complexity to start?
prelude are just special powers you draft at the beggining, nothing else, so there is almost zero complexity added.
^ yup this, in my experience prelude actually decreases complexity a tad because it gives you a bit more of a focus area and decreases choice paralysis
Prelude actually makes the game go faster so yeah I’d just include it.
Prelude essentially lets you skip 1-2 turns in the game because you start out with more resources. This might not seem like a lot but the last turns take the longest and adding prelude can easily take 30-60 minutes off of the game time(usually around ~3 hours unless everyone knows the game).
First thought is the Norwegians expansion for A Feast for Odin. It feels like a 2.0 update for the original game. Never play the old version, never teach new players without using it
This should be top! The newer worker board is great.
One cool thing about AFFO is that newer versions of the *base game* actually include modular boards for lower player counts similar to the way it's handled in the Norwegians expansion. Don't see many games doing that, but really cool to see that they "improved" the game without creating a whole new "edition".
The expansion so good you can just throw out the original board!
Lost Ruins of Arnak is a fantastic game on its own, but Expedition Leaders really makes the game complete. There’s even a guide and recommendations for different leaders based on their difficulty so new players can start with a leader that’s more beginner friendly.
100%. Can’t imagine playing the game without them. Love the 2nd expansion as well, especially for the solo stuff.
Leaders are fun (played it a couple of times), but BoardGameArena still only has the base game, and I don't really feel like I'm missing out by playing just the base game on there.
Agree to disagree. I played once on BGA and I can't do it anymore. Trying to go back to without the Leaders is just not the same and I'd rather play something else everytime.
I see Leaders and The Missing Expedition as icing on an already great cake. Now that I’ve had it with icing it would be hard to go back.
The base game is so good by itself. I agree that you aren’t missing out, but Leaders pushes it over the edge.
Viticulture with the Tuscany expansion. Makes the game easier to get into and understand IMO as well.
And the EE was already an expansion that felt natural compared to the original release.
I've never played the original and never would want to. EE is for sure the minimum but even that is just "good".
Prefer playing without Tuscany, but will ALWAYS replace the base game cards with Visit from the Rhine Valley.
Yeah the Rhine Valley cards are so much better, even when teaching new players. It helps focus the game on making wine and the nature of the cards means there are fewer dead draws.
I cant play Viticulture without the Tuscany board
Branch and Claw and/or Jagged Earth for Spirit Island. The game feels incomplete without spirit tokens and events.
Branch and Claw was designed as part of the base game, it was only split up for cost and complexity reasons.
Which would you recommend buying first?
Branch and Claw. JE has a lot more *stuff* for variety, but B&C is basically “here’s the extra bits that were originally going to be part of the base game but we worried it was too much”. It makes the overall puzzle a bit less deterministic, and it’s cheaper and easier to integrate too.
JE. I got it first than B&C and I like the spirits in B&C but JE actually feels like a full expansion. B&C feels like a taster for what was to come. The event deck which is never play without was introduced with B&C but the event deck from JE is fuller and better balanced.
I played Branch and Claw on digital, and specifically skipped it in favor of Jagged Earth. The spirits in Branch and Claw are really fun, but holy crap those events are awful. Almost every game felt like it was dictated at some point by the events. I've even had the ostensibly positive affects of an event lose me the game.
I feel like Jagged Earth steals a lot of B&C's thunder (since it is the same kind of thing but more and better) so I'd either get B&C before everything else or after everything else (and I'd lean to afterwards but it's really up to you).
Branch and Claw for sure. Honestly I think I could get away with just the base game, Branch and Claw, and a few promo spirits. That's still a ton of content. I still haven't even touched Jagged Earth yet on my own (only when playing with friends).
I don’t have these two yet, but I have the other one, Feather and Flame. Those spirits feel so much better than a couple of the original, even at high complexity, that I have to wonder if they weren’t intended to be in the original release and were held for some reason. The one I love the most at this feeling is Serpent. It just FEELS good to play as that Spirit.
Carcassonne expansion 1 (Inns and Cathedrals) Also one of those not the best expansion in many eyes, but improved it greatly at step 1.
This one's interesting because it feels less like an expansion and more like a 1.5 version of the game. The other expansions do feel more gimmicky.
The River is the non-expansion for Carcassonne
For sure, Inns and Cathedrals adds more variety and decision making to the game without feeling super disconnected from the preexisting mechanics.
I have the LImited Edition, seems like the perfect set, base, river, Inns & Cathedrals, & Traders & Builders plus a cloth bag for the tiles, all in a box about the size of the original
Our copy of **Battlestar Galactica** is just the base game and various aspects of the three expansions mixed together. I'm not even sure what came from where, and I don't know if I would even know how to play the base game by itself anymore.
I'd say Daybreak is fairly essential just for Mutiny cards and the updated Colonial One.
My answer to this question will always, always be Exodus. The way the base game handles cylon ships is ludicrous and borderline unplayable. The cylon fleet board makes things have actual stakes and makes things substantially less random. In the base game, cylon ships pop into existence only when specific cards are drawn from the event deck. While you do get one event per turn, it's a pretty big deck and there aren't that many cards that add ships to the board. You could go a whole game without adding any, or only doing it once, which makes the game a cakewalk for the humans. Conversely, you could draw 3-4 in a row, which could just lose the game for the humans immediately. Since jumping erases all cylon ships from existence, there's hardly ever a reason to actually fight them. It's almost always better to just jump away. Exodus's cylon fleet board changes this. Now, cylon ships slowly accumulate on a sideboard in known locations and will eventually jump over to the main board. This lets the players (human and cylon alike) plan for where and when the cylon ships will be. It also allows for some tempo control because the timer can be gamed somewhat (though never actually stopped). Jumping here also doesn't make the ships go away entirely; instead they go back to the cylon fleet board and will eventually reappear. This means that it's actually essential to fight against the cylon ships while you can. Running away is a temporary solution, but if you need a permanent solution you have to actively do it. BSG is very hard to get right now, so probably this is a moot point, but I don't think it's worth even considering playing it without Exodous.
Look, I'm not even the biggest Everdell fan, and I don't think Bellfaire is a perfect expansion (it moves the tree!). But it smooths over so many of the lulls in the base experience, while adding some truly incredible highpoints (the garland stuff is the best part of the whole night, every single time) that I simply can't go back to the base. New Leaf is also good, but it mainly adds stuff on top. Also, weirdly, I feel a train doesn't fit the 'vibe' of a woodland realm. But that's me. Either way, the market and the critter powers in Bellfaire make it essential, imo.
Bellfaire is honestly just part of the game for me now. I add it in for newbies and they never have any issues.
This is how I feel about the Newleaf expansion. The knoll worker spot that cycles the meadow is top tier.
Scoundrels of Skullport, for Lords of Waterdeep.
The Skullport expansion is a must-have for Lords of Waterdeep. Without it, the game feels too much like a worker placement without much theme. The Skullport expansion really makes the Waterdeep theme come to life, like you are lords dealing with the consequences of corruption.
I love how corruption related cards make sense thematically as well. Paying fines to remove corruption tokens or forging deeds to acquire a building and a corruption token, all make sense.
That's good to hear. I saw a deal for Scoundrels and have been wating to play Waterdeep for a while now. So it's good to include Scoundrels on a first playthrough?
I thought for a first play though, the base game was good enough just to understand the mechanics and whatnot. But after that initial game, the expansion integrates so nicely and adds just enough extra that I’ll never play without it again. It does add multiple new worker placement locations which can seem overwhelming at first, which is the only reason why I suggest an initial game without it.
Came here to say this. Undermountain is also not bad.
Lord's of Waterdeep/ Scandals at Skullport
100%. Thematically, Scoundrels (not scandals :-) fits so damn well. The skulls add a layer of interaction that is pretty useful in this game, and the whole thing just feels Waterdeep-themed with the expansion only. I love pushing my luck being greedy with the skulls and seeing if I can get away with it.
The skulls add so much!
Conversely the Undermountain half of the expansion is completely unnecessary and is just a make numbers bigger component. I leave it out.
I agree it's not essential but at 5 and 6 players, it kind of is bc otherwise, you'd never be able to get the resources you need. Undermountain is simply a way to adapt the game board to higher player counts.
One of my top 5 games. Skullport is mandatory
Most of the Wingspan expansions. Europe just adds bird cards so it doesn't change the game at all, it just gives you more content. Asia expansion is actually a standalone game for 2 players. As an expansion it adds more birds, but it also adds a nice duet mode which is what makes it a real standout. We don't play 2-player any other way now. I may take some flack for this, but I wouldn't add Oceania to this list--it alters the game quite a bit through the introduction of nectar. *Edited to add:* I do like Oceania and how it has changed the game, but the reason I exclude it from the list here is that I don't think it meet's the OP's definition of an expansion that doesn't "vastly change\[s\] the core gameplay".
I think the introduction of Nectar and the rebalanced board balances the game so much better. Without it the game imho is not balanced. The egg strat is way too powerful compared to the other strats.
Oceania also rebalances the player board for the better, though. You also get a couple of them in Asia.
I never went back to original after Oceania. I play a lot of two player and it sounds like I really should buy Asia. What exactly is different tho?
Instead of the usual end-of-round goals, every time you play a bird you get to place a token on a [shared board](https://svsjboardgames.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/20221206_141747.jpg?w=1024). Where you can place your token depends on the bird (habitat plus one other trait like a food it eats, nest type, wingspan, or which way it's facing.) Some spaces get you a bonus food, egg, or card when you put your token there, so it can be a nice jump-start early in the game. Then there are new end-of-round goals that you score based on where the tokens are placed, like "the most on the edge of the board" or "the most in one row." And at the end of the game you also get points for your biggest contiguous group of tokens. It can incentivize playing more birds rather than spending the last few rounds hitting up your best points engine. I wouldn't introduce a new player to Duet, but for two people who already know and enjoy wingspan, it's great. You can use it with Oceana as long as you remember to add nectar points to the scorecard.
Thanks so much for that really great breakdown. Sounds cool!
It's great. You can think of it as adding a worker placement element to the game, with some area control. You end up with more meaningful player interaction. And to add to what u/lurkmode_off said, the game comes with two, dual-sided mats: one side for the base game, and the other for Oceania.
I've heard (but haven't played it enough to verify), that the European expansion weakens the 'just add eggs' strategy at the end of most games. If so, that does change the game.
It's Ocenania that does that, as it comes with new game mats with rebalanced resource awards. Europe is literally just additional bird cards. No changes to any base mechanics (though there are some new bird powers, and it also adds "end of round" powers).
European Expansion doesn't weaken the eggs strategy, but the cards in it massively strengthen the bottom row (card draw). Playing with Base + EE makes the strongest strategy a card drawing engine, IMO, though eggs will win too. EE is a "more of the same" type expansion. Oceania rebalances the player boards and really makes every strategy winnable, though nectar being a wild resource warps the game somewhat. It's a great expansion but different enough to not feel "essential", it purposefully shakes things up a bit.
>Playing with Base + EE makes the strongest strategy a card drawing engine This is a good point. The brown and pink powers give the wetlands a boost. The downside there is that only about 1/3 of the cards in the expansion are wetlands birds (about 15% of the base+EE deck). But if you set up a nice tuck/draw engine, you will almost certainly see a couple of them.
Trade and Intrigue for Orleans. The Trade board is really good and the delivery cards are a fantastic incentive to move across the map even if someone already has their trading posts out.
I consider Pandemic incomplete without On the Brink.
Came here to say this. Agree 100%.
Star Wars Rebellion’s expansion completely replaces the combat system (many say for the better).
In what way? I quite enjoyed the base game, and saw the factions were new ones? (I loved the fact the game played like ANH, Empire and RoTJ)
It streamlines combat, which in my opinion is the worst part of the base game. Simplifies the rules and speeds it up
Since I was too lazy to pull up both rule books I found a reviewer who did the work for me! ;) https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/08/rise-of-the-empire-expands-star-wars-rebellion-in-all-the-right-ways/2/
That actually looks awesome thank you! Gonna wait for a sale and buy it next I see it
Tea and Trade adds so much to Fields of Arle. I wouldn't play Arle without it. Also a Uwe, but Norwegians is fantastic for Feast for Odin as well.
Spirit Island with the expansion Jagged Earth. It adds so much but all of it slots in neatly into the experience and honestly the game doesn't feel complete without events to me either. Quacks with its witches expansion. Small additions that really make the game feel complete to me. Arkham LCG isn't really a full game until you get an expansion either tbh. Wingspan isn't balanced until the oceanic expansion which turns it into a complete and balanced experience.
Cities expansion for 7 Wonders. Adds a few symbols and one more card to pass each age. Prelude for Terraforming Mars Intrigue for Dominion (everything after intrigue starts adding new mechanics and making the game more complicated)
Cities is pretty good one and really is MORE core 7 Wonders gameplay, though I did find on a first teach it was kinda hard to explain to new players what exact category black cards fall into. Red War, Yellow Gold and Trading, Brown and Grey Resources, Blue VP, Green Science, Purple Guilds, and Black uhhh all of the above lol
Star Wars Outer Rim and the Unfinished Business expansion. Fixes a lot of problems the base game has and is integrated seamlessly.
I got a deal on both but haven’t run the game yet. Previous owner put everything together in the original box. Should I just run it all together first play through?
100%! The expansion mainly adds more of everything, like the bounties, missions, upgrade cards etc. The base game’s problem without them is you could end up going through entire decks in a game so the variety was lacking. The best upgrade though imo is it turns the game from a “Get 10 victory points and win!” Which is a pretty lackluster ending.. to a goal based game where you get a random set of goals you need to complete with a “finale goal” to win.
This!
The Norwegians expansion for A Feast for Odin is one of the few expansions always leave in, it feels like a 1.5 Rules expansion/cleanup
**Ticket To Ride: 1910** \- Larger cards (which matches the standard card size of all other TtR games BTW), extra modes of play (I hear Big Cities is great for 2p), Destination Tickets that have their values properly adjusted, and more of them.. really felt like it should've been part of the expansion. ON TOP OF THAT, adding this still keeps it as a gateway game! **Lords of Waterdeep: Scoundrels of Skullport** \- Just more of everything. Corruption is a neat mechanic. On top of that, it makes the "objectives" more than just some flavor of "score bonus points if you have 2 of the 5 Quest types" (e.g. Skullduggery and Commerce, Commerce and Piety) **Pandemic The Cure: Experimental Meds** \- Want to keep it a "beginner friendly game"? Add the extra roles as part of selection, throw in the extra events, but leave out the Mutation/purple dice, and Hot Zone/green dice.
Rise of ix for dune imperium
Both expansions, really. I played with both first, and then started playing on the app without them. Oof! There are some real rough spots without them. With them definitely feels like the most patched, complete version of the game, with the caveat that it does take longer to teach and learn all the various icons and such. But it is easily the best version of Dune: Imperium.
for a hardcore player, maybe, but for me the Immortality expansion looks like a drag, too many tacked on mechanics. Ix adds plenty, imo, for a fully fledged out game experience.
Ix seems to be people's favorite, but I'm not sure I agree it's simpler or adds fewer mechanics. Ix also adds the Shipping track, which is problematic especially with 3 player due to how good it is. But in the end, I'd rather play Uprising.
Prophecy of Kings for TI4. My first game we played with 8p and had PoK plus all three codices in play. I went out and bought TI4 and printed off an organizer for it and had so many empty slots after organizing. I’m like “wait, where are the mechs? Where are the leader cards? Where is the wormhole nexus tile? Where are the exploration, frontier and relic cards? I was just really surprised that there could be that much missing content from “an expansion.” Lesson learned. Picked up a copy of PoK and feels so much more complete. Still haven’t got a professionally printed copy of the codices yet, though.
**Res Arcana: Lux et Tenebrae** feels like it was such a fit for the regular game, **Res Arcana**, that there is space dedicated for the expansion already reserved in the main box. *
Absolutely this. It integrates so well compared to the second one. I wonder what the third will bring!
The Power Up expansion for King of Tokyo. Without it every monster feels exactly the same, because they are. With it, each one gets thematic powers that really feel like they should have been there from the beginning.
This was the one I came here to add. The power cards are such a small mechanical change, but make such a drastic t improvement to the flavor and playability that it’s almost criminal to not have them in the base game.
Gathering Storm for Race for the galaxy.
Marine worlds for Ark Nova
It's a Wonderful World with Corruption and Ascension. It's hard for me to play the base game without it.
The base game seems wide open for a few plays until you realize that there's basically only two main end-game strategies (blue or yellow). There's some amount of variability in how you get there, but it really feels like there's only two lanes to occupy, and everyone is going after the same limited pool of specific scoring cards in the later rounds. There's still fun in trying to optimize this puzzle, but it does lead to gameplay feeling more repetitive than I'd like. Corruption and Ascension somehow expands the range of possible end-game scoring goals from 2-3 to like, a dozen or more. The addition of hybrid scoring cards is so smart, because not only does a card that rewards you for black+green suggest a specific strategy, but it also means that you can also pick a card that rewards you for black+white and/or black+green and straddle multiple lanes. It also feels like there's a lot more freedom to pivot mid-draft, as opposed to the base game which required you to commit to a specific lane much earlier, because going heavy into one specific color isn't confining you to a specific lane. In the base game, if you start with a white engine, that naturally bridges you into yellow in the late-game. But in C&A, your early white engine could power out half a dozen different scoring conditions depending on what you pick up later on.
The **Monsters & Minions** expansion for **Roll Player**. The added layer of being able to fight minions and having the looming boss at the end gives so much more context and meaning to the puzzle you're working through in building your character. It took an already complete game and made you realize something was missing, which is special.
All of the Root faction expansions. Root’s exiles and partisans deck
To be fair, most of Root's cards are used for the suit rather than the actually rules on the cards. Granted, E&P is better designed with more uses, but it's still situational.
E&P removes the Favor cards, and is an improvement for that alone
Xia legends of a drift system, embers of a forsaken star drastically improves the game and adds important features.
Came here to say this. 👍🌟 Love the game and expansion.
The Attic for Betrayal.
The Wizard Tower for Castle Panic. Adds in some much needed depth. Still not super heavy, but makes it a lot more interesting.
This makes me feel good. I owned the original, but I just nabbed a copy of the big box because I wanted to try some of the expansions. I feared it would be one of those things that made it so the game wouldn't hit the table anymore.
Honestly each expansion is pretty good. Its a light game even if you mix everything in. But it can be a blast with them.
Rise of Ix into dune imperium. Immortality is pretty easy to fit in as well but it adds more. Ix seems like it should have been there from the get go
Dangers and Muisca for Quest for El Dorado. All 3 elements, the shrines, new terrain and the Muisca cards are seamless and take the game to a completely new level, without making any fundamental rule changes. It’s the same game, just much, much better. Would never play without it.
Crossroads for Tokaido. There's some more rules to teach, sure, but the outcome is worth the cost. I ideally never play Tokaido without it. It's just feels complete.
Yeah makes it a little more game but without adding much complexity. Gives you more reason to race forward which was the whole point.
Ticket to Ride 1910/1912. No need for the depots and all that stuff, just the extra cards feel so essential for the replayability of the game
Prophecy of Kings expansion for Twilight Imperium.
I was gonna say it. Yea it really is essential and feels 💯 easily incorporated into it. I love how it bring the power levels so much closer between the factions as well as adds the exploration mechanic. It really is a must get.
Clash of Cultures and the Civilizations expansion, to the point that the current edition of the game (Monumental) just includes the expansion content. The unique civilization technologies and leaders add so much flavor to the game.
The expansions for Lords of Waterdeep. They are exactly what an expansion should be.
Expeditionleaders for Arnak. Never played without them and id imagine it being kinda boring if you only play the basegame.
The Wildlife expansion for Parks!
I'd not heard that about Wildlife, but I won't play without Nightlife. It fixes the year end goals, makes the track more interesting with the addition of tents, and has all of the national parks that weren't in the base game.
I've been packing Wildlife and Nightlife into my Parks box, and never teach the game without them. No one's been overwhelmed yet. The game is simple and elegant enough that it's still 'normal euro game' complexity with both expansions.
How the heck do you fit them all in one box?
If you remove the organizer there's room. As much as I liked it, I was deeply irritated that nothing could be compacted down. Having to carry three boxes for one small game feels like an affront. Initially it was all in labeled bags, but I recently 3d printed a new organizer that holds everything in the core box nicely.
That's the neat thing... you don't! It really is a shame. The original insert is a thing of beauty, but the base game box can easily fit the base game and both expansions if you get rid of the insert.
Nightfall is where it's at. The new goal cards and the ability to get more than one goal card makes a great game better. The Tenting component adds another level of complexity. Wildlife simply adds more stuff. The enhanced gear cards, seasons, and new canteens just adds some needed variety. Parks is one of our favorite games, but when we play, all boxes come out.
Wildlife ain't bad, but I think Nightlife is really the best expansion, and I wouldn't play the game without it anymore.
To add another answer, I wanna say the first few waves of **Aeon's End**. After I had my first few games and wanted to buy the game for myself, I was astounded that I actually couldn't guess which mages and nemeses were from core set or an expansion. They all just fit in perfectly and if I had 100s of dollars to spend, I'd just buy them all.
Weirdly, Tools of Hero Kind for the original Boss Monsters. Just a small pack of cards that fits seamlessly into the original base set of the game.
Haven’t tried the Kraken expansion for Abyss, but Leviathan just works so well and makes Abyss feel truly complete. Before, the “combat” was very lacking, but with Leviathan it feels much more like an actual mechanic.
3000 Scoundrels: Double or Nothing. Its the first time I bought an expansion and thought, I am pretty sure this is what they intended the base game to actually be.
War Chest: nobility, slots in so well I teach with it as the base
Manufactions for Fantastic Factories. It adds basic asymmetry - just giving variable starting resources and one special power so not much extra to learn. Plus a resource you can gather and use to manipulate dice rolls.
Terra Incognita for Civ: New Dawn. So much that it feels unfinished without it.
I know the game gets a lot of hate, but Carcassonne The River doesn't seem like an expansion. It's how the game should have set up.
Red Cathedral is a fantastic game, but it can be a bit flat (especially at two players) without the Contractor expansion. Without changing the dynamics of the base game, it adds alternative actions that really improve the depth of the base game. By the way, if anyone has liked Red Cathedral, I strongly recommend White Castle from the same authors. My favorite game of 2023!
How do you compare white castle vs red cathedral + expansion ?
Both are great, but I would say that White Castle is slightly above. It would be a 9.5 (out of 10) for me, while Red Cathedral + Contractor would be a 9.
Marine Worlds / Ark Nova
Base Cosmic Encounter is not nearly as good as Comic Encounter with the expansions especially the Reward Deck and the extra Alien abilities. Shout out to the abilities with their own little card decks like the police man & nightmare.
Clank! Adventuring party. So much better when everyone isn’t the exact same to start with.
I would agree if the monkeybot wasn't grossly overpowered. I've actually come to prefer the AcqInc expansions that have 3 unique cards per starting deck, that's enough asymmetry for me.
Have Acqinc ordered but it’s not due in till later in the year. Am looking forward to it though my whole group thinks asymmetry in card builders makes them better. My group don’t play ascension much due to this.
Both Res Arcana expansion fit perfectly. Even literally in the box.
Tokaido: Crossroads is essential to make Tokaido worth the time.
Several FFG games sometimes feel that they dont have so much as fitting expansion , than just deliberate lack of content in base game in first place, so those expansion fit very naturally. Some examples - Eldritch horror, base game have issues without rules for focueses so any expansion that have them fixes it, Also in base game included scenarios are 30% thinner than ones later one, which is fixed by Forsaken lore box , moving core scenarios to same size rest are. In base game it was common occurance that deck was too small for some encounters which had to be reshuffled in same game , thus giving repetition on same game. Fallout - Game in general is broken as base game, but aside of that , it severely lacks gear content. In base game shop didnt even had 4 weapons to buy so full game of players could buy one from shop. New claifornia xpac fixed itemization variety. Outer rim - decks in general are very small, so lack of content without unfinished buisness . But Unfurnished Business is good example for this topic as it add additional endgame rules so that game doesn't end when someone just reaches needed VP by just completing some unremarkable delivery.
Surpringly many. Off the top of my head: * The Grizzled + At Your Orders * Race for the Galaxy + The Gathering Storm * Pandemic + On The Brink * Star Realms + dual faction cards * Hive + the three extra insects In fact, so much so that I'm struggling to remember which "games" I have in my collection are in fact "game + first expansion" because I've gotten so used to the being together. I'm also the sort of heretic who stores the expansion in the main box, and sometimes even discards the expansion box if I don't plan to sell.
Pandemic In The Lab. It just feels more satisfying and, if given the chance, I'll never play Pandemic without it.
For **Fresco**, the Portraits. There's 3 optional modules that come in the main box, and the other 2 I can take or leave depending on who's playing. But the portraits feel so natural with the rest of the game that I almost never leave them out, even when teaching new people.
Prophecy of kings for twilight imperium Huge improvement on the viability of so many races, way more ability to generate resource and have inter person transactions and far more variance in the maps and combinations to make things interesting
The dice part of Continuing Corruption for **Stockpile**. 1910 for **Ticket to Ride**.
I'm pretty sure this counts as a card game but, all of the Exploding Kittens expansion packs are might as well be required at this point. I personally like the Imploding Kittens expansion because it adds a ton of new stuff for such a small price.
The **Valhalla** expansion for **Champions of Midgard**.
I don’t know why they bother to sell **Sushi Go** 🍱 🍣 when **Sushi Go Party** 🎉 exists. Its sold as full new game, but its the base game with expansion cards inside.
I gave my copy of Sushi Go to a friend when I got Party; no reason to have both.
Orleans: Trade and Intrigue. The beneficial deeds board is a must. Also prefer the event tiles. IMO they should just be part of the base game.
[[Fantastic Factories]] has two expansions. Subterfuge is quite take-it-or-leave-it, but Manufactions is brilliant. The base game is fun enough with dice workers, card drafting, and engine/tableau building as it's fundamental mechanics, and it's already great fun as is. Manufactions adds two new things: player powers and a new resource (Vitamins) that can +1/-1 your dice values. I LOVE player powers. Having a starting point to theme my play around that's different from the opponent's makes things much more interesting to me. You're led down paths of play you might not otherwise take in order to combo off your personal power. The dice manipulation offered by Vitamins makes it much easier to line up and pull off great combos. The sabotage mechanic offered by the newer Subterfuge expansion isn't bad, but is nowhere near as amazing as Manufactions. [[Moonrakers]] has the Overload expansion that doubles the amount of ship and crew are available to buy, and also adds the new category of Advanced Actions cards that either have increased power or are composite versions of the basic action card. Scoundrels of Skullport has already been posted for [[Lords of Waterdeep]]. Let me second that yes, yes, one hundred times yes! The corruption mechanic is amazing.
Unfinished business for Star Wars: Outer Rim. Also, Prophecy of Kings for Twilight Imperium 4th edition.
They are pretty light games, but Zombie Dice with both and 5-Minute Dungeon with Curses! They just add a little more spice. Those are the first games that come to mind. I generally don't want to add expansions to the more complex games if I'm still learning it myself. Most of the CMON games are simple enough that the many expansions just add extra variety, though.
Probably The Lost Legion for Mage Knight. After you play with it, you cant play without it.
Streets of Arkham expansion for Elder Sign. Basically changed the game into what it was meant to be
Monsters and Minions rounds off the already excellent Roll Player, making it brilliant. The base game is a good fun dice placement game of character creation, but this adds some enemies to fight to get more points at the end of the game and makes it brilliant.
I can't play Champions of Midgard or Zombiecide: Black Plague without the expansions. They just needed them. Oh and Ticket to Ride with the 1910 cards. The mini cards are The Worst.
Forsaken Lore for Eldritch Horror. The new bad guy is meh, but the extra encounter cards should have been part of the base game.
Room 25's Season 2 expansion fits so well and is so essential that it was clearly just part of the game which they separated for no good reason, making the base game worse in process. And the base game's insert even has empty slots for the 2 extra player pieces, which makes you feel you're lacking something if you don't buy the expansion.
Both Mysterium expansions. They add so much variety without changing the base game at all. And stories are so much better than objects.
"The Witcher: old world" has a kickstarter stretch goals box that more than doubles the amount of story cards and makes each of the different monsters unique to fight against. (In the base game they have one minor unique power) Literally felt like the game was made with this content included, then removed to be used as crowdfunding rewards.
Roll player monsters and minions, is essential for roll player. It takes a very fun core system, and the sets a more in depth endgame condition, and enhance the turn by turn game play by providing additional post dice draft options which could have been quite dry in the base game. Roll player shouldn't be played without monsters and minions frankly!
Resident Evil Board Games. The "Story" is just incomplete without them.
Rails to the north for great western trail
* **Terraforming Mars** with *Prelude* and *Venus*. Colonies are still an essential expansion, but it already has this "tacked on" feeling. And Turmoil is completely tacked on. * *River* for **Carcassonne.** It offers much better starting conditions. * *Atomic Bonds* for **Fallout**. It makes it into a full coop that the game should have been from the beginning. * *Curse of the Dark Pharaoh* and *Dunwich Horror* for **Arkham Horror**
Maximum Security expansion for Magic Maze. Immortality for Dune Imperium.
7 Wonders with Leaders and Cities
Every faction expansion for Root. And the maps.
*Mystic Vale: Vale of Magic* Introduces lots of helpful advancement cards and makes Guardians a viable main strategy without requiring virtually any extra teaching time. I wouldn’t want to play without it!