3 Expansion Reviews: In The Footsteps of Darwin,Sea Salt & Paper, and Solstis
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Transcript
Welcome to Allies Are Enemies. I'm Jess.
And I am Sean. And today we are going to be talking about three different expansions. We're going to be talking about expansions for Sea Salt and Paper for Solstice. And the first one up is going to be In the Footsteps of Darwin. The first expansion we're going to talk about is In the Footsteps of Darwin Correspondents. And this was designed by Gregory Gard and Matthew Verde. And our copy was provided for review, but the thoughts are all our own.
And this comes with a bunch of stuff. So, first of all, you've got this England board that connects to the main board. Also, you got a bunch of new tiles, a bunch of animal tiles, and some new people tiles. You've also got envelope tokens. classification tokens and advanced publication tokens
and all of that extra stuff represents corresponding with England. So now there's kind of like the two aspects you're traveling around the world collecting animals, but there's also people like back at home in England that you're keeping in touch with or corresponding with.
Yeah. And that that is well obviously one of the big ways that you show that is with that board, but also now none of the people are on that animal board, which never really made any sense because Darwin wasn't like finding people out in in the wilderness. So now the people are in England and you're sending stuff back to them and that is how you are getting them and getting them on your board. But also what that does is it makes it feel a little bit like you're setting up combos.
Yeah. And you have to because in order to get people you have to spend envelope tokens and so you are collecting up these envelope tokens and you get them in a few different ways. You can get them on some of the new animal tiles. Also now there's a whole other way that Darwin works because in the original game Darwin was just the standy that you got and if you had him at the end he'd be worth two points. And I always found it wasn't really worthwhile getting Darwin. Now instead, anytime you get a tile that has Darwin, you move him around a map and you get different bonuses.
Yeah. And that really rebalances a lot of those tiles. And I almost like I really wonder if this expansion was thought of before because those first tiles really did not feel that balanced. Some of those you got like two points in Darwin or one point in Darwin and you're almost certainly not getting those two points at the end of the game. So that's a one point tile. Who wants that? Now you do want that cuz you're moving them around this circle on this little mini England map and that gets you two different things. So it gets you the letters like we talked about. Those are used. Two of those get you a person. Three of those get you an extra animal which also is really nice to have. The other thing he gets you is these classification tokens. And each one of those is in a different color and is a different animal. You get these tokens and you put it on the matching spot on your board. If you already have something there, you just flip that over. That's worth two extra points at the end of the game. So Darwin's still getting you two points, but he's getting you two points most of the time. Or you just put it on an empty space. And the thing I love about that is it gives you a new thing to target on your turn.
Yeah. because before you were always just targeting rows and columns and sometimes you would be a little bit out of luck. So, I do like that now you have these tokens on your board and you're like, "Hey, two point points is a lot. It's going to be worth getting a tile there, too." And I think the other interesting thing is the advanced publication tokens. So, these are tokens that go out at the beginning of the game and they go on for each type of animal and each region and they're a little bit different than the standard publication tokens because the standard ones um all get you like five points. These ones might get you more points or might get you fewer points but a bonus, but there's only one of them. So, there's a race cuz whoever completes that first gets to take the advanced token.
Yeah. So, you're really racing for those rows and columns because, like you said, there's only one on each row and column. And some of those do get you six points. Some of those get you like four or three points, but they're going to get you stuff like two extra guides or like a couple of envelopes or whatever it is. And almost always they are better than just taking the five points. So, they really are worth racing for. And I like that because it gives a little bit more interaction in the game now where you care what row and column other people are going for. So you don't really want to be ra or maybe you do want to be racing them, but if you see that they want bugs, then maybe you don't want to go for bugs. Maybe you want to go for something else. And so yeah, I I think that part adds quite a bit to it.
Yeah. And it's interesting because in the original game, I think there was like unique art for each of the publication tokens, but they were all just worth five points. So, it was just aesthetic. I like now that there's those little differences because it's nice that you might actually go for one thing more than another just because you want that specific bonus.
And then the other thing as well is just the animals. And so, it's got a whole bunch of new animals. It's got some really cool animals and it's got a new appendix that tells you things about those animals. And this is one of my favorite things in the In the Footsteps of series, both Darwin and Marie Curi, is that it's got this little booklet that comes with it that is nothing to do with the rules that is just teaching you about the things in the game. So, this has little things about each one of the animals. I believe that there's four animals for each region, I think, and then also some extra stuff about the later years of Darwin's life after he had published the origin of the species. And so it's got a little bit of a continuation from the original appendix as well. So a little bit more that you can learn too.
Yeah, I do like that this has the science still very much embedded, but it doesn't feel like an educational game. But it's like, hey, if you want to know more, if you find this interesting, do feel free to check out the appendix. But in terms of the this expansion specifically, I like that it feels like you can pull off some combos because that didn't really feel like the case in the original game. Whereas now, if you have letters, you can exchange those for people or animal tiles. And it's just nice to be able to get more stuff.
Yeah, this it feels like it adds just a little bit of weight. This does it's not going to be like a heavy game by any means. This is like a I don't know a BGG like two out of five kind of game. And this makes it like a 2.2. two maybe at most. But I I've already enjoyed the game. We both like the game. It's a fun little tile placement game that I think has some nice bits to it. But this does feel like now it adds a few combos. It adds a little bit more interaction. It adds a little bit more stuff with those with the other tokens you pull out of the bag to target you a little bit more. So, it just feels like more of a game. And I like that the people aren't like picked up as you travel around the world. That makes more sense now that those are on a separate board. And I do wonder if this was taken out because they wanted it to be nice and light at the start or if they just kind of realized that maybe the Darwin token was not very balanced. So, this really does rebalance that. But this now to me feels like the full game.
Yeah. And I do like that it's not only the people that you can get with the uh envelopes, but it's also animals because just having more animal options is always nice because if there's a specific animal you need and it's the top one for that stack, well then it's worth collecting letters to be able to get that animal.
Yeah. Yeah, definitely is. And that also gives you more opportunity to get more of those goal tokens as well. And those are always fun to be racing for. So, I would say if you have In the Footsteps of Darwin and you like it, I would strongly suggest this. I think this is one that we will use every single time that we play with it. This is just like a must add for me. I think kind of a no-brainer. If you didn't like it, maybe this helps get it over the hump for you. Maybe because it does add a little bit, but maybe it doesn't as well because it is still it doesn't massively change the game, but it does add just just a little bit more that I do think knocked it up. The next expansion is Sea Salt and Paper Extra Pepper and this is the second expansion for Sea Salt and Paper and the expansion is designed by the same designers which are Bruno Cthala and Teao Rivier. And what this brings is 12 new cards and these are special event cards. So each round you've got one card that is going to come out and that is going to change the rules of that round in a whole bunch of different ways. Then at the end of that round someone is going to end up getting that card. Some of these cards are good cards so they give you a little bit of a power. Some of these cards are definitely bad cards so they're going to pull you down a little bit. So, it's going to depend on the card. If it's whoever's got the most points or the least points is going to get that card, then they're going to have that that power until either that
stops being true. So, if it was least points and then you get ahead, you get rid of that or they get a new card and then they can choose which of the two that they want to have.
Yeah. And importantly, it works a bit like a catch-up mechanic where it's the person who's furthest behind that will get the like positive card and it's the person who is furthest ahead that will get like the negative effect card. But what's really interesting is how the event cards just generally change the game and you're always dealing with at least one cuz there's the one for the round. And so, for example, one of the event cards means that mermaids don't give you any points, but you can still win with a mermaid win. And when that comes out, it's amazing cuz we're now seeing mermaids in the discard pile, which never happens.
And it sucks to get saddled with that, too. Like, sometimes you almost don't want to necessarily win that round because you're going to get stuck with a really bad card that you're stuck with next time. So, there are all different kinds of effects. And let's just really quickly run through what there is in this game. So, there's one there's one where the crabs take one card from each discard pile. There's one where the fish are going to take two cards from the top of the deck. There's one where if you have two sharks, you can just steal a combo of cards that someone has already played down in the table. If you use two two swimmers, you can look into the opponent's hand and then trade a card with them. There's a few that change the point scoring of things. So, where the shells are worth two points, the octopuses are only worth one point. The mermaid cards don't score any points, but you can still win with four. Then there's another one where you can win with only three mermaids, where you can't end the round till you have 10 points, where you can't end the round unless you use last chance. Then there's ones where at the end of your turn, if both cards on the top of the decks are the same color, you get to take one of those cards where if you discard one of the um point collection cards, you get a free card. And one where you can use a shell instead as a defense mechanism, so no one can steal stuff from you.
Yeah. And they all change the game a fair amount. And I I really like the ones where the rules change. So, like for example, when you've got the where if the two discard piles match color, you get to take an extra card because then you if you can, you may as well discard one that matches because then you're just getting an extra card. And before you're not really paying attention at all to what cards are in the discard pile.
Yeah, I like that one a lot cuz you can feel very clever doing even though it's just a super simple little combo, you feel very clever with that combo. But I also like the ones that just really change the value of different cards. So the ones that literally change the value of the cards, the ones with the octopus and the shell, but also the stuff like the one that um when you've got crabs now you when you've got crabs when you when you select two crab cards that you now take one from each of those discard piles. Or the one where if you discard one of those collection cards, then you draw a card from the top. So all of a sudden those collection cards become like the top of basically the discard piles all the time. So if you wanted you could counter that by really collecting cards.
Yeah. And I like that this swimmers and sharks change a little bit as well because you have now ones where you can play two swimmers and exchange a card with somebody. And so that's interesting because you get to see their opponent's hand. So you're definitely going to try and give them something that they don't want. And you get choice in what they have that you get to take. And I also like that the sharks, they don't feel as bad almost because you're just taking a played pair and you're not re-triggering the effect. So really, it's probably going to be worth one point. Although it could be worth more depending on what else they have.
That's true cuz if you take that with a starfish as well. And that's an interesting thing, too, is how this interacts with the other one with the extra salt expansion because already the crabs were a little bit stronger because you had the card that was worth one point for a crab or you had the lobster that works with the crab. And this kind of adds to all of that and how it interacts with itself as well because you've always got that card out that affects this round. But you still have cards that other players have earned or worse had kind of put on them to kind of drag them back. So earned I guess in two different ways. So then you get these interesting things like maybe for me shells are worth two points but the current thing is to put back shells to be able to draw cards. So now everyone isn't sure if they want to put back those shells to get free cards because they're giving me free points. So that's interesting too. Although I will say that we've only played this at two players.
Yeah. But it would be really interesting to play it at four. And I really like the event card that has the shells as protection because if you're playing with people who are very aggressive and really gunning for the shark swimmer combo, then that makes it interesting because as soon as you have a shell, you you can't be targeted.
Yeah. So, if you're like at the back of if if everyone else is ahead of you and you're the only one protected, obviously no one's gunning for you. Everyone's just going to take out each other. So, that's interesting. But I do think in general it is probably usually going to help people catch up because you get that superpower or you get that weight on you.
I think really generally that should be the case. And I do like that because if there's a really bad card out for the round and you're currently ahead, you might almost think, well, I don't want that the rest of the game. Maybe I won't try and really win this round and that way you have to take it. But you're never stuck with two. So, if you have one on front of you already, good or bad, and you're like the winner, the recipient of that card for the round, you get to choose which one you want to keep.
You do, however, if if there's a bad card that's out for the round and you have a bad card, you do now have two negatives for that little bit. But also, again, to remind you, this is just 12 cards. So, we are talking a lot about this because we are kind of obsessed with sea salt and paper, but this is just a very simple 12 card expansion. And I would say this is really for folks like us who play a lot of sea salt and paper. So, if you're just brand new to it, you don't need this yet. And I would definitely pick up extra salt before I picked up extra pepper. I think that is for sure the better expansion. It also that only has like 10 cards in it, I think. But that one really helps to balance things. This one is really a lot more about that catch-up mechanic, but I don't think it's going to work great for brand new players because it does add another rule on top of a game that just has a lot of little rules if it's your first few times playing.
Yeah, I agree. I don't think you need it at first, but I really like having it. And I think when it's just us two playing, I think we're pretty much going to use it all the time now. I'm I'm going to say I don't quite think it's an all the time expansion. I I think this is like a 50% maybe maybe a little more than that. Like this is a most of the time expansion if you play a lot lot lot with the same people. The last expansion we're going to talk about is a pretty small expansion and that is Solstice Firefly and this is designed by Bruno Cthala and Corentin Labat.
And the last one we talked about was pretty small with 12 cards. This is even smaller. So, Solstice Firefly comes with four new spirits and seven Firefly tokens. End of list. Well, it also comes with a rules tweak for the evil spirit, too. But I think the fireflies are, I think, the most interesting part of this expansion, cuz how the fireflies work is now whenever you make a group of four and you add a spirit. Before, if you made more than one group of four, you'd only get one spirit and that was it. Now, you get to add a firefly token for every additional group of four that you make, as well as your spirit. Yeah, and that does make a difference because you do that more often than you'd think. Not always with just with the one tile making two groups of four, although that's possible, but often what would happen is because a lot of those tiles because kind of half the tiles get you points at the end of the game, but half the tiles basically get you another tile. They get you something right now.
So often that new tile that you get creates a new group of four and it always felt like a bit of a waste because I'm kind of thrown away getting a spirit. So, I do like that that I get this Firefly token and that gives me a point as long as it connects to the ground. So, it works kind of the same as those fire tokens that you find in those top two rows. But the other thing that it does that I really love is if you manage to get four firefly tokens, you immediately win the game.
Yeah. And you love when there's a specific win condition like the mermaids in the previous game that we talked about. So, you are motivated to try and stop your opponent from being able to do that. Although, I don't know like how much control you'd have of being able to stop your opponent.
Yeah, there's a little bit, I guess, because you can see the spirits in that row. So, maybe you have a sense of if they take this token, then maybe they can get something from the row or maybe that's going to get them a lot of tiles if they're already getting close to it. But really, it's going to be a lot more of a race. But I do think it makes getting those ones get taking those spirits that give you immediate tiles a little bit more enticing because I think previously I generally went with the ones that get got you end of game scoring because points are generally fairly low in this. So if you've got a tile that's going to get you four or five points, that's a huge deal and it's probably going to be more worth more than one tile. Now you've got a tile that could get you one point right now and conceivably just win you the game automatically.
Yeah, that is true. It is interesting that that winning condition has now changed. And there are four additional spirits. So you would just mix those in with the regular spirits, but they do slightly different things. So one of them lets you take an isolated land tile from your opponent and add it to your panorama. Another one lets you see your opponent's tiles and then you choose which one they have to play on their next turn. Another one, I think it's the cow, scores for your second largest group. And the last one scores for each of your Firefly tokens.
Yeah. So then that one can make all of those Firefly tokens worth two points. So those become even more useful. And then the last thing that this expansion does is it changes how the evil spirit works. So in the original game, there's a weird red spirit that is an optional tile to use and it's an evil beaver and he looks super evil. And originally how the beaver worked is if you had that well anytime you kind of pass that back and forth, but if you have it at the end of the game, your opponent gets to put it over one of your spirits and then you don't count them at all. And that was really, really tough because you don't get that many spirits in a game and usually you have one that scored you a lot and so you've done a ton of work on that and they're just like, "No, you don't get like those eight points or 10 points that you got out of this spirit."
That felt terrible. So, we never used it. We read the rule once. We said, "Forget that." We never took it out of the box. But this works way, way better. So now what happens is you're going to put that in your opponent's somewhere on their space and they can't put any tile down on that space. If they draw a tile that would go there, they actually have to discard that tile. No one gets it for the rest of the game. But as soon as they get a new spirit, they get to shift that back to you and that goes in your space. And that shifting happened in in the uh with the original rules, too. But now it's just filling one space. And that feels way less punishing and a lot more fun and still mean, but just like a little mean.
Yeah, cuz it certainly is inconvenient because like you could have a tile right in the middle and you have that tile, but you can't play it unless you manage to get rid of the beaver, but it doesn't feel nearly as punishing as just not being able to score a whole bunch of points. So, this expansion doesn't add a lot, but I do like what it adds. And I think this is one that I I'll always play with like the fireflies and mix in those other spirits.
Yeah. Well, there's no reason not to because the spirits are just it's for other spirits. It doesn't add a ton. I think the beaver rule is just it's better. It's just objectively much much better. I can't imagine anyone preferring how it was before. I guess if you like games to be really really mean, but this is way way better. And then yeah, and the fireflies. I think it's just a good extra rule. But this really does not have a lot in that pouch. So if you're thinking about ordering this, this is definitely one I would just pick up if you're at a board game store. It's going to be like a couple of bucks. If you really like Solstice, I do think it's worth adding. But if you order it like we did and the shipping is like twice as much as just the little pouches, I'm not totally sure it's worth that. But I think if you're at a board game store, they've got this on the shelf. You already like Solstice. It's a couple of bucks. I don't see any reason not to pick this up. I think it does definitely make the game better. I think we'll use it every time. And that is it. That is three quick expansion reviews. And what other expansions have you played? Please do mention those in the comments. I think my favorite of these three is probably the In the Footsteps of Darwin because I do think that that bumps up that game a couple of notches, but probably the one we're going to play with the most is Sea Salt and Paper because boy, do we play that game a lot.
Yeah, I like both of those little pouch expansions. So, thank you so much for watching. As usual, please like, subscribe, and hopefully we'll see you next time for another game.