Let's expand our moon base! - Shackleton Base Expansion Review
Transcript
Hello everyone, this is Synva.
And this is Johannes.
And you're watching Board Gaming Ramblings.
And today we are taking a look at Shackleton Base Below, Within, Above. This is the new expansion for Shackleton Base and this was sent to us from the publisher, so thank you so much for that. Shackleton Base was both our number one game of 2024, so we were very excited to get this expansion and to play it. In this video we will try to tell you or we will tell you what is included in the expansion and what we think of the contents that is there. We're going to think that you have played Shackleton Base or you know Shackleton Base. If you don't, you can watch our review of it or other videos because there's a lot of videos about that game out there. So we're going to focus all on the expansion today. I'm going to tell you about all the parts of the game which are or expansion which aren't really a lot of different things, but we there are a lot of different things at the same time as not being different things. There is first off one new player power.
Yeah, that's the content of the expansion. Bye.
No, but that's there. I don't I don't feel like maybe if you played a game a thousand times you'd be like, "Yay, that's the thing I needed." I didn't feel like this was it's not like we've played a game enough times and again there's like one. I feel like if if you wanted to expand on the player powers, maybe have four, maybe two. It's
I don't know. I feel like the designers just been like, "This we that's a neat one. We wanted to include this."
Yes.
And then they didn't like feel like the need for just making up other stuff just because.
Okay.
So maybe this is a good sign. It's just like we added one, that's what we wanted.
It just feels like Do you want a little bit salt on your food? It feels It's not like a negative thing, but it's it's kind of a small thing.
that's not why you're buying expansion.
You're buying them because of these eight tiles.
Well, these are neat.
So what they are is that you place them over the 10 points and the 25 points and the first player who gets 10 points gets to choose one of these, which is an instant bonus, and then the second and third and so forth. And when you get to 25 points, you get a bonus, which is like an action that is better or cheaper that you can use once. What do you feel about this?
I like those. I sometimes like change the order of the way I did things to reach that point or focus more on points giving things to get those because those actions are pretty powerful and those instant things are pretty neat.
Yes.
So, I felt like they were nice, but I like that everyone gets one. Yeah.
I thought it was okay. I didn't feel like it was something that added a lot to the game, but it didn't really take away from the game, either.
Again, I don't [clears throat] think you buy the expansion for this.
But, we're not supposed not to talk about it even if people don't buy the expansion for it. It's not
No, so I feel like they are there. I I'm not the I I don't care either way. Like it's one of those things that if I were to choose, I could choose to play without this, I could play with them. I don't really care. Like the game isn't any better or any different for me with any of them. You said like sometimes you took a different decision. I felt like I was playing the game. Maybe I'm playing the game bad, and that's okay, but I didn't feel like I was doing anything. It was a nice little bonus, but it didn't really feel like it was needed.
Mhm. The expansion is mostly three new corporations.
That is why we're here.
That's why we're here.
Yes.
And if you haven't played Terraforming Base or it's a long time ago, uh you need to know that in the base game, there are multiple corporations and you will
Yeah, and you will play with three of them each time you play. So, already in the base game, you have a wide variety of different powers and they also interact like not with each other directly, but depending on the combination you have, you will see something that might be really good together or not. So, this is why you're buying the expansion if you're buying it to get these three new corporations.
Yeah, so let's let's do a little bit of deep dive, not too much of a deep dive, but let's start diving under the smooth
Under moon.
Under the moon, not under the sea, but under the moon. So, Sunam, tell me all about this one.
You get this little add-on to your player board that has this little drill, and when you activate a corporation token, you will drill further down into the moon, and if you hit this, for example, token here, you will place this in on the board, you will get the resource that you place on top of, and then that space is kind of blocked for getting that resource until someone activates it and then like fixes it and gets two reputation. You can also use your corporation actions to place these like buildings
Yeah.
that gives you income. Then you can place a meeple here, and you will get this income every income phase. During the game, you can also spend an an a corporation action to flip it, which is very neat, so you get points for it at the end if there is a a a dude there.
The interesting thing about this one is that the deeper you drill, the less or more reputation you're going to lose at the end of each round.
Yeah, because you lose one, three, five, and six reputation every round. Oh, yeah, they're yeah, on the other side.
[clears throat]
So, the further down you drill, it's basically like the the corporate This corporation likes that you're drilling, but you get less reputation. Okay, this is thematic, like they don't want you to drill, but you get more space for buildings, and those income buildings are pretty powerful, but you're then choosing to place your astronauts over there instead of into your buildings, you're kind of like balancing that. And as always, there are cards that helps you do more drilling. And this one lets you lose less. Like there are all of these different cards that help you. As always, there are cards that are managed or helpful for this one. And I feel like you went really heavy for this one a lot of times we played.
Yeah.
And tried to fill up the whole board. Did you manage to flip it for points all of them?
yeah. I flipped all of them for points, I think. That's what I think is really nice with this game. You can play going heavy for one or you can play just like ignoring one completely.
Yes.
And this one is if you're if you're thinking you will have a hard time with the with the reputation, you might not go for this very heavy. But what I did the one time I played with it was getting these that gave me the reputation income, which makes it easier to manage this.
So you basically you get a lesser income bonus, but you you you help for for this because you will If you have these two, you will then basically get reputation as both of them gives you two reputation.
Yeah.
It's I I really like this one. We haven't spoken of the last two, but but so far there's like not one of the corporations I don't like in the game. They're just like different.
This feels the times that I've gone like try to focus on this, it feels a little a little slow in the beginning because you have to drill for a lot down to really get to place this in the first place. So you feel like in the beginning it's a lot of work, but it really pays off in the end.
And of course, like if you manage to get one of those two drill cards in the beginning of the game, it's going to help you a lot to start that engine going as well.
But like drilling a lot in the beginning, like see I drill down here and I have a lot of space now, but I can't place this. Then it's only negative for you. So you have to balance it a little bit. Next up we have
Lunar City. We already had one corporation that adds tourists to the game. Now we have civilians coming and joining the moon as well. So with lunar city, there are any civilians that you can get uh depending on the amount of There's like a track. So it goes like this and the farther ahead on the track, the more reputation you have to get those civilians to move into your base. And And what they do is basically nothing in the beginning.
In the beginning.
can There's one thing you can do with a corporation action is to place them on a spot on the on the board like if you place another color and choose one area and activate that area as any color as you like. That you can do, but there are a bunch of these cards. There's only nine cards, but there is a bunch of these cards that changes up how they work. So for example, this one says that now every civilian on a one slot building is a joker.
Yeah.
So that means that you can place them on there and get whatever income you want at the end. Or there is one that lets There's one for for the biggest building. There's one for the two and one for the three. So you can help out using those to get discounts. I would say that going heavy for these without having a card that makes them better is kind of not that good.
Yeah, because they net you one point for each [clears throat] one you have at the end of the game.
But it'll fill up spaces.
Yeah, and and it's nice to get those spaces filled up
do anything though if you don't have the card.
what I would like to say is that this is This is great on its own, but these two work kind of great together because
Oh yeah.
this doesn't need a specific color so you can easily stand there with that one and just like get get stuff.
Last up we have Seen It Works. So this is This is below. This is within. And then we have above.
Yeah.
Talk to me about the above.
This uh
It's almost like above and below the other game. It's almost the same.
Just within also. Uh this corporation lets you build a special buildings and these basically are linked to the cards. So when you get this card that lets you get this building and yeah, so that's what the the letters are. And those have different rules for each one, but how to like use this corporation is that you activate this corporation token to get these blueprints. And you can later use corporation actions to spend blueprints to overbuild. So that makes it easier to like get buildings out.
doesn't have anything to do with this. You will build your own buildings on top of your own buildings.
I think that's neat because I like this with other corporations in in Shackle base as well in the base game, but this also I feel like some of the corporations let you go like in different directions with that within that corporation. Sometimes you're not going for that corporation, you're just like snagging this card and that's good. And it works well with something else that you're doing, but I I really think this overbuilding like action is really cool because it makes the board less tight.
Yes.
Because you're building on top, so it doesn't help you with any like majorities or anything like that, but you can get some points for it at the end of the game with the overbuilding. And also it makes it easier for you to get those building off your player board. You have to pay income for them though like like or like what do you call it upkeep for them. So you have to balance there as well, but that's interesting.
I feel like this one is the most is the hardest one to get into because the rules are a bit like most of these cards you understand. When you read the cards you might have to check the little the little sheet, but this all of these have different rules for how they work. So first off like some of them when you get the card you don't get to build it, you get to place them on the card, but then others you get to build them at once, and then there is a different then you don't really own the building, but then there's a global effect that lets you you own it because you have the card, but then there's like a global effect that lets people do things onto the building, and all of those are different. So, this one is going to be the hardest one I feel to play with the first time you're playing. These two are more straightforward. I haven't gotten my brain like completely around this one yet.
we're still at the stage where we're rules checking this. Um
But it's like all the rules are pretty clear because like I was a bit annoyed that I didn't really Okay, so B B So, the the letter means that you get the building, but sometimes you get to build it, sometimes you don't get to build it, sometimes an action to build it. So, it was a bit hard to get into by that, but other than that, really well. So, uh we are trying something new.
Yeah.
Uh because we had this like rating system for expansion that didn't really work. So, we're trying something new. If you have a better way of doing it, please let us know. Have ideas for that?
right now.
Because we don't rate the expansions with a a rating number. And first of all, I have to say that uh if you like Taken the Base, I think you're going to like this expansion because it's more. I think that if you took this and you threw them in the garbage, I don't say you should, you would have 99.9% of what makes this expansion good. I don't I don't It's kind of so little that I'm almost asking why.
Mhm.
I'm not like negative to getting more stuff, but it's like I It's kind This is the expansion, and it's not like it would be weird if it felt like, "Oh, it isn't enough. We need to add one tile."
No, this is just like a little little something, and this is the meat and potatoes of this expansion, absolutely.
It is. So, we're going to try to rate this now on two different categories. One of the categories is going to be how often would you play with the expansion? Because some expansions are like things you would always play with, some expansions might be, "Oh, I'm going to play with this once in a while." Uh and stuff like that. And then, the other question which I think might be more helpful to you is when should you buy this expansion if we think you should buy it? Is it something you need to buy when you get the game? Is it something you need to game buy when you played it like a lot, or when you played it a few times? Something like this is a stay in the collection.
Yeah.
[clears throat]
So, or if you should skip it.
That's true.
So, those are the categories. Maybe I will start for a different [clears throat] kind of thing.
Let's go.
First of all, I like this expansion. I think it's a great expansion. I I think it The thing about Terraforming Mars, I think Terraforming Mars is a really good game.
Yeah.
And also, Terraforming Mars has a lot of variability in the box.
Yes.
Which means First, I'm going to answer first question. How often would you play with it? This Take it or leave it. I've said it a couple times. I would But the thing is, it's not like it takes away.
No.
So, it would just They they would be added. And this one would be added and you shuffle it in. And this There's no reason not to just put them in. They're not It's not like they're much more complicated.
No.
Like there's different complications of the ones in the base game as well already. So, I feel like this is one that you would always, or I would always add it to the game.
Well, yeah.
I agree.
It doesn't
But in reality, you [clears throat] would not play with these three always because you would shuffle them in and like this like draw one the three randomly like with the others. So, it would be that we regularly would use it.
No, you would always use it because you're willing These will be included.
Okay.
And these will be included in the draw during the shuffle. It's not like you will be No, we're going to take this out because in some games you get to the expansion expansion. Oh, but these added to expansion are way more complicated, for example. So, oh, we're playing with new players, let's not do these ones, for example. When should you buy this expansion? I feel like this is If Terraforming Mars came with four corporations
Yeah.
I would say I would maybe say, "Oh, you need to buy it when you buy the expansion when you buy the base game because I think the base game is fantastic but it's not an expansion that fixes anything and that is kind of like the main thing for buying it when you buy the game if you're not like a completionist and just buy the expansions when you buy any game. I feel like you can play Cyclades base 20 times without needing this expansion. I feel like you can play it a lot. With that said, I think that if you play Cyclades base and you enjoy Cyclades base and you think you're going to play Cyclades base more than four, five, six times, I think this is a nice addition. It's not a to go back to the other rating we used I mean it's not like a must get. It's one of those that I would suggest playing the game, finding out you and your game group like it and then get it.
Do you have anything to add or did you just say the whole thing?
I yes I I completely agree with you.
yes I didn't try to we're finding out how to do this thing but we are trying to but that was our joint final thoughts.
Yes.
Do you have any you didn't have anything to add?
No.
That means that this is the end. Do you have one thing to add?
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Yes do it now. Thank you so much for watching. I'm Johannes and you've been watching Board Gaming Ramblings and bye-bye.