At the time of writing my last post, I completely believed what my Stonemaier Games order said; "Your product will be shipped within 1-3 weeks from your local distribution centre"....
Not 1 week...
Not 2 weeks...
Not even 3 weeks....
TWO DAYS!!!!!!!!!!
Amazing. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the email saying FedEx would be delivering my package by 8pm today. Wow. At Noon, it was safely in hand. 🤗
Let's unbox shall we?
Here's my order:
First - The remaining items needed to complete my Viticulture collection: Tuscany Essential Edition, Visit from the Rhine Valley expansion and Moor Visitors expansion. 😊
Second - The first expansion for Expeditions: Gears of Corruption.
Let's start with Gears of Corruption unboxing...
A nice small, compact box that housed all of these components (including an awesomely sized expansion rulebook).
I didn't realize (because it really didn't matter to me) but was pleasantly surprised to see new replacement Mech Mats with inlays so your tokens don't slip and slide everywhere if you bonk them. Cool! Let me show you the new mats beside the old...
I do like the two seperate tracks for your power and guile tokens. The inlays are a nice treat to the mech mats for sure.
New characters and companions come with the expansion. As you can see here, some of our Scythe universe well-knowns that were not a part of the base game, such as Bjorn and Mox are taking part in the Expeditions in Northern Siberia.
****Very Minor Spoiler Alert****
Included in the rulebook are short background stories about the added characters and companions, which include two brand new characters and companions (like in the base game) - see below:
Freya and Loki are a prime example. Who knew Bjorn had a daughter!? Awesome! Bjorn's story shares the fact that though he had enough of his time in the trenches, he saddled back on his buddy Mox to go search for his daughter in the harsh Siberian landscape. LOVE IT! (The Scythe universe storylines that Jakub and Jamie continue to create are just SO FANTASTIC to me!)
Here's another nice surprise. An optional draft variant for multiplayer games for choosing mechs, characters and companions.
The top row here shows the new mech cards, along with starting power, guile and hero worker ("wild"). That in itself is a nice simple touch I'll enjoy. I used to shuffle the mech mats themselves to choose a mech, but now I can just shuffle this deck!
Speaking of mechs (something I did know ahead of time) is that the Gears of Corruption expansion comes with 2-new mechs to choose from: "The Mole" and "The Scarecrow". And that means I finally figured out what the two round spaces were for in my organizer the base game comes with (see below)!! 🤣
I'm excited to try this later this afternoon / evening. The additional "stress" / "worry" of a corrupted mech roaming the territories is pretty awesome. It's definitely going to make you think differently (not to mention lose some things at times if you get too close... *Insert dramatic movie music*
The additional rules with the Automa opponent(s), which are already very easy to run in this game, will not add much house keeping at all! Stress and worry in the gameplay and decisions, yes - but not housekeeping. 😉
Time to Move from the Cold North to the Warmth and Wine of Italy
Just the thought of having my Viticulture Wine Crate FULL with ALL things Viticulture is incredibly satisfying, let alone how much I'm going to enjoy adding to an already great game!! Exciting stuff!! Here (below) are the two visitor expansions. As you can see, nothing big and nothing fancy. Just more variety which is always fun!
Once again, I didn't realize something about the Tuscany expansion... It has a NEW extended board!! Whoa! I put the base game board next to it to show the difference.
I also wasn't aware that the "Structure Module" is optional with Tuscany. I assumed it was part of it. So this new extended board, on the other side, is what you use when playing the structure module. Notice the structure card spots (orange - top right corner)...
When you play with this module there is a small additional board you add beside your vineyard (player board) for your structure cards. After browsing the structure card deck, I don't see me not playing with this... possibly ever! It's exciting to add more options and decisions such as adding a restaurant or hotel/inn for example to your vineyard.
(To finish my unboxing post, I have to credit Jamie Stegmaier for the Viticulture Wine Crate. It holds ALL things Viticulture PERFECTLY with the box sitting flush. It's excellent. 😃)
So, Derek, you're now in possession of Viticulture in its entirety? Awesome! And it all fits perfectly in the box? When does that ever happen?! At an attempt to emulate your always appropriate GIF selections, I'll give it a try.