Azure Cosmos and Moytura Mag Mell Expansion Review
Transcript
Hey everybody, welcome back to the Dice Tower. My name is Chris Yee. I'm Mike Glicio. Today we're taking a look at two expansions to two games that we reviewed uh just recently. We don't have the boxes for the expansions because boxes don't exist for them. No. This is what the uh Moitura Magmell expansion and the Azure Cosmos expansion come in. Mhm. You notice that we only have one of the bags because I misplaced the other bag. In the garbage. Because that it it's in the box.
Yeah, yeah, it's just in the box. I think even if you buy it from their, you know, their web store, it still will come in a bag, I believe. Yep. Yeah, it just ships like this because the expectations they go in here. We're also going to show off those little deluxe miniatures for Azure. Uh so yeah, we're going to go through these I'm going to explain how each of the expansions work and we'll give our thoughts. So why don't we start with the Azure expansion. Let me show you what comes in that and also show off what the miniatures look like. Then we'll be right back. In the Cosmos expansion for Azure, you'll notice a few things. One, you have a new track with the yellow dragon here that is going to be a tug-of-war moving back and forth. There's also two large boards here. They are double-sided and you will set them up opposite each other, replacing two of the boards. Now, these are happen to be the white and the blue side. They also have a red and a black side and then you can play them in any combination. This happens to be the one set up that I'm using here. Uh you play the game the same way by playing out cards, paying for the costs, and then checking for control of the auspicious beast and gaining the boons of the spaces you cover by paying the cards uh necessary to play onto that space.
However, the other thing is that you now have a new action uh a bonus or boon symbol shown on the board here, these yellow circles, which represent control of moving the dragon your direction. So if I, as the white player, am able to place over here, This would normally cost three uh cards discounted by one for every one of the the bonds or the discounts that you have. So, if I had one white card, I could play here, for example, and I would gain three steps of control on the dragon, the yellow dragon. I would move this three steps my direction. When I cross this threshold here, I'll gain a victory point and I'll get to draw the top card off of any deck of my choice. These are the face-up decks of cards, not the face-down random deck. If you ever get the a yellow dragon all the way to your side, that is a an alternate win condition for the game.
Uh and then also these points can be gained and lost as the opponent moves the dragon their direction. It might cause you to lose points and have to give up a card from hand. And so, that is what's different in the Cosmos expansion. And while it's not an expansion, this is an optional upgrade that you can purchase for Azure as well, which replace the auspicious beasts, including the yellow dragon here. So, you can see the sculpts are really cool. They have a nice look to them. They are washed, so that some of the detail kind of uh pops on them a little bit more. Uh I particularly really like the turtle that has the snake. It looks very much like a like a jewel uh kind of a thing. Uh so, yeah, these are available for uh for the game and you can also use it like so with the expansion. My one gripe being that this tray, uh which has a lid, by the way, but it doesn't fit in the box uh straight across, but you can tilt it diagonally and it'll fit in there. So, these are the upgraded pieces.
So, anyone watching this, hopefully if you watched the reviews of the basic games,
Mhm. we're operating under that assumption here,
Yeah. right? For sure. We you and I both really enjoyed Azure. Yes. Uh and so, this with the slightly bigger boards and that tug-of-war track uh is is just an alternate way to play. There's nothing It's not like modular or anything. It's just in or out kind of a thing. Yeah, and it change you know, it gives you a potential different win condition. Yeah, a little extra way to draw some cards there. Uh and and I think that it integrates pretty smoothly. There's a new you know, that the yellow symbol is pretty easy to understand. It goes to the yellow track. Right. Don't overcomplicate it, but definitely adds more more uh I guess like possibilities of of Well, just other paths like you're saying. Things to things to chase maybe or not. Do you enjoy playing with it? Not really. No? No.
Uh so, here's the thing. Okay. Um I don't think it's bad. It's not badly designed or developed or anything along those lines. I will not choose to play with it. Okay? And the reason is this. Often times when when most times when I really like a core game I really like the core game experience. If the expansion fundamentally changes the way the game feels to me I don't particularly want that. I feel like in this case this expansion distracts me from what I like about Azul. Okay. Okay, and that's just simply what it is. I don't think there's anything wrong with it. I think there will be people that prefer to play with this expansion, especially if you like things like, you know, Seven Wonders Duel or The Lord of the Rings Duel cuz it definitely has that tug-of-war push-pull element. Yeah. I usually like that. I don't like it in this game because there are the the things that I like about Azul are very like pure, simple, boom boom boom. This is the core experience. This is why I like this game. I feel like Cosmos distracts me from it. That's interesting. Yeah, I I enjoy it. I enjoy quite a bit. And it it is interesting because I feel like it doesn't fundamentally change it. But, I could see why yeah, if if you like that chase for the 25 points.
Uh well, I like that part a lot, but if you want to kind of keep that experience pure, then yeah, this is a distraction on the side. It's a way to win and I have seen the games come down when playing with it. Come down either way.
Sure. And I I I like that. I loved when Splendor Duel introduced three different win conditions instead of the one compared to Splendor. And that's kind of what this is like without adding much rules overhead. So, I find that really impressive. But, it comes down to whether you enjoy that or not and I don't I don't think there's a wrong takeaway from it.
No, no. And like I said, that's why I don't think it's a bad expansion. It's one that I will not choose to play with. So, that's really where it comes down to is I was like, okay, would I ever choose to play this over the base game of Azul? And to me the answer was no. Interesting. Yeah. And And for me it's not like In some ways it's not like essential in the fact that I will always play with it. I really like bouncing back and forth between the two actually. But, score-wise is I guess you're in a tricky situation. Well, how would you summarize it?
I'm coming at a six because it's one that I again will not choose to play with. But, I don't think it's bad. I think it's not for me. I think this expansion for this game is not for me because I like the very To me Azul is a very pure abstract game experience and I guess I just became enamored with that experience and when I played Cosmos cuz I had played the base game of Azul several several times before I even tried the expansion. And I was like, oh, I don't know if I like this This doesn't feel I I This is distracting to me. I don't want to have to be thinking about that. Mhm. But, you have to because if you don't, you're going to lose. I want to be focusing on the clever things that I've learned I can do in Azul, right?
And so, that's why to me it was just like um it wasn't more of what I already liked and necessarily, it was a distraction. I don't know how else to put it other than that.
Yeah, sure.
But but again, it's not bad and some people will like it more this way. I mean, some people aren't going to want you to staple an income engine on the side of a chessboard, right? Again, yeah.
Sure. For for me I I like it so much. I'm rating it at 9.5. Wow, okay. So, you really really I really like playing with it. And it's weird because I like playing with it almost as much as I like playing without it.
Mhm. Which means to me that it's it's great. It it is the type of expansion I want because it's like having an alternate game mode.
Mhm. And so, it's one of those things that kind of elevates the game because I now have two fun ways to play it. Uh and not that I'm only going to play with. It doesn't feel like a a common Kickstarter complaints, right? Oh, the Kickstarter's they ripped out the good game and they give you the cheap one so that you buy. No, this is just just an alternate way to play and I I I really like that. The resin miniatures They're awesome. They're awesome. You saw them in the video. Um unnecessary completely.
Mhm. But I think uh an elegant little touch to add in if you already really like the game. Absolutely. So, now let's talk about the the Maut Tour expansion, the Mag Mell here. Uh let me show you what comes in that, what is different in the gameplay there, and then we'll give her our thoughts. The Mag Mell expansion for Maut Tour comes in a little ziplock baggy here. Uh comes with cardboard punch-outs for all the pieces just like the base game, and then you have the option of getting the upgraded uh bits here. But the pieces are very thick, very nice actually. The rules are going to come in the basic Maut Tour rulebook in the last few pages here are going to cover Mag Mell and including the new deity Lugh and the three different new factions in there. So, what you do is you're going to replace one of the basic deities from the basic game, and recommends that you're are to take out Dagda for your first game, though you can mix in any one of them cycle that any one of them in or out and you have a new one to play with here. This allows you to expand into a target region next to the origin that you choose and then after expanding choose a space and you're on the board and you can move one enemy token from that space into an empty space next to it. That's going to give you a lot of flexibility controlling majorities, maybe getting something out, maybe messing more direct with your opponent. You'll also notice that as you upgrade Lugh by taking his action space in the higher up spaces, you'll either get to move all of the enemies out of a space instead of just one or move them into any adjacent space. So, you can really directly mess
with your opponents, but it requires you to have upgraded it and spent it while you're at the top there. Now, there's three new factions, all of which are going to behave a little differently and have these specialty tokens in addition to their starting fortresses. So, let's talk about the Eesh Shee here, which have these portals. On the rank one cards, of which there are two, they're going to expand normally and you're just going to increase and expand out following the roads as normal. However, you're going to place a portal into any of the regions, the three space regions or or larger that they move into that does not already have a portal because when the rank two cards come out, it says that you're going to place one of the Eesh Shee into every space in a region that has a portal in it. So, for example here, you're going to place them right there and you're going to place them over here. Now, this gets really bad if they expand into say this red color region because they'll be able to portal and drop people into every space, only spaces that don't have an enemy. So, that's how the Eesh Shee kind of portal teleport in. Next up, Balor's army here on the rank one cards will expand normally and then on the rank two are going to expand by placing out two camps or two pieces on every road space and place out a camp. Now, these camp tokens are important because whoever controls these camp spaces will earn an extra victory point. So, you are definitely want to be in hot pursuit of those. And lastly, we have the Bananach
faction here who, when they expand with the rank one cards, are going to expand normally, so following all of the roads that they can. But they're also going to be placing out these spirit tokens. The spirit tokens offer you no benefit. They're only bad for you because they count as an extra unit that cannot be removed. So, even if you move into these spaces with your armies and would remove these guys here, the spirit tokens always stay and they always count towards majorities. The rank two cards, they just expand as normal. So, those are the three new factions and the one new deity that also is going to come with a few things, player aids to explain all of that that we just went over, and two new starting location variable setup cards there. That's what comes in the Moirai expansion for Moirai. So, Moirai from the get-go is the more complex, more piece, bigger box of the two games here.
And this is one that that you liked a little bit more than I did in the but not by not by much.
no. Yeah, we both really enjoyed this one. And so, uh one new deity and three new factions to play against and two setup cards.
Sure, sure. I think the setup cards feel like probably the smallest difference.
Right. But they still are different.
Yeah, absolutely. I think that they uh are maybe a little bit trickier. So, when you do your opening draft, you you can hurt yourself if you uh if you draft this opening spots wrong. Yeah, absolutely. I feel like this expansion is one to kind of in contrast, in my opinion, is one that gives you more, right? It gives you more of what you know. Not an alternate game mode.
game but I will say that everything about it is a slight step up in complexity, right? And I think that's what this expansion is doing. It's like, "Okay, you feel comfortable with kind of the bones of Muir and and you feel like you've kind of gotten some of the nuances of the uh the base factions that you're facing off against. Check this out. This is going to This is going to really make you have to delve deeper into your brain to be able to kind of uh deal with the different things that are going to happen. Like you said, the setup uh cards can put you in a more precarious position. There's less hand-holding with those for sure. Yes.
Um and so those can be pretty impactful. And each of the new uh factions in the game are slightly more complex in kind of how you have to approach them as a player, how even more crucially, I think, you can use them to your advantage to hinder the other player. Oh, yes. So, um yeah, that's where I'm at there as far as like how this differs from the Azure expansion, too. And I think that even the deity that comes in there that you you can swap out, I really like. I think it's a small nice touch. They say, "For your first game, we recommend that you replace this one with a new guy." I think that's great because starting a game two, whatever, right? And you And you could just pick any random one, but if that's a good first introduction, why not make that small recommendation, and then you never have to do it again, but it's a good onboarding kind of step.
Yeah. Uh that being said, to your point, I I wholly agree. He can really You can use him to absolutely hamper your opponent, whether through the typical Muir kind of indirectly, or if you level him up very directly.
Very direct, yes. That's true.
not easy to do that.
No, it is not. It's not. And it's it's a bit more nuanced of a power, I think, than some of the other ones because um it's the one that's hardest to account for if someone's going to play it against you. Yes. I think that's the thing. It's like it's like do they do they see this? Do they see that I'm I'm putting myself in a precarious position but only if they notice it and take advantage of it type of thing whereas with some of the other ones they're a little bit more clear-cut as far as what you're trying to do. That that particular god has more nuance and and potentially devastating. Absolutely. And speaking of devastating, the three factions.
Yes. I like that they all have the same element to them. They expand and they put out a wood token but I like that what those wood tokens mean to the board state are pretty different.
Yes. Extra control or an extra point if you control or those portals Yes, that's right. Wow. Yeah, it really it changes the geography of the game, you know, to an extent. Without changing the map.
Without changing the map, right, which is a pretty slick trick to pull off. Um and it also to to to be fair and and I don't know if this is a negative but you something I think you would keep in mind. It does add to the visual noise a bit. Yes.
Um and the board can already be a little bit cluttered. You you oftentimes have to be careful about how you're placing the pieces so that you make sure you're in the correct area trying not to obscure the values uh for each of those regions and that that uh especially if you go nuts uh like Chris and I did uh and just put all three of them in there, it it does increase the visual noise on the board a little bit. And you can play with two of the basic uh fellows from the game on the basic side or on their advanced side and then you can throw one of the expansion ones. I love that variability. It's going to be a way to also ramp up the solo difficulty which I think is a great touch because this really works well for the for the the two-player head-to-head or co-op or the solo play of it. So, a a nice step up in complexity all around.
Um I'll start with score. I I suspect I might be a little bit lower, but maybe not by far. I'm giving this one an 8.5. I think this is a great expansion. It, as you said, feels a little bit more what we typically call a more stuff expansion, more stuff you're already familiar with, but all the little extra mechanisms it introduces are just delightful and potentially devastating, yeah, which is great. That's what I want out of this experience, what I want out of this game. And so, having just more variety of enemies to place to to face off against and everything, fantastic. So, yeah, 8.5, I think it's excellent. I'm actually also at an 8.5. And and I guess maybe I'll explain it a little bit because I do think it's a outstanding expansion. I tend to rate expansions a little lower than base games. Mhm.
Just as a matter of course, whether that's a quirk of mine as a reviewer or not, that just tends to be the case. Um if I'm giving an expansion a nine or a 10, somewhere in that range, typically it's like, this is taking a game I didn't particularly like before and now making it a game that I really like. Okay.
To me, that's what an expansion, you know, just elevates. I already have such a high opinion of My Little Scythe as a game, you know what I mean? That this to to be, uh you know, an an excellent expansion means that it's doing something very very well because it's taking a game I love and it's adding new things that I also love, right? It's not elevating something that needed elevation, if that makes sense.
Sure. So, uh an 8.5, a really really good uh experience that you can take an already pretty modular game and and just amp that up. Absolutely. So, there you go. Two expansions from uh from Bitewing, from these uh this two player Mythos line that they do. Both Well, I mean, yeah, I'm highly recommending recommending both of them. And Mike with different opinions, but I'm glad to hear that. And I think that people will have different experiences and different takeaways from them. So, there you go, folks. Hope that review was helpful for you. If it was, consider leaving a like on the video or subscribing to the Dice Tower channel for more great board game reviews. Thanks, everyone. My name is Chris Yee. I'm Mike Delisio. Have yourselves a great fighty fighty kind of a day.
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