In the expansion review series, we take a look at a game expansion to discuss whether it is a necessary purchase/addition to one’s collection.
This breakdown is for the expansion pack of the small-box game bundle that includes components for the following 3 games: Mountain Goats, Sequoia, and GPS.
The expansion for Mountain Goats includes an additional set of Goat Meeples to accommodate a 5th player, as well as cards to play with the Big Mountain. Setup is the same as a normal game, but the two Big Mountain cards are also placed into the play area. The overall gameplay is unchanged, but with the addition of the Big Mountain, players are able to utilize dice rolls that total from 11-24, whereas the base game tops out at 10. Players can choose to use these higher dice rolls to place Goats on the Big Mountain. At the end of the game, Goats on the Big Mountain will score additional points, depending on their positioning on the mountain.
The expansion for Sequoia also adds an additional set of tree tokens/dice to accommodate a 6th player, as well as including some negative value point tokens. To setup the game to include this expansion, you will first replace specific point tokens with the provided negative point tokens. Point tokens are randomly assigned to all forest cards, except for two cards that will be assigned a pair of negative point tokens. Gameplay is identical, with all players simultaneous rolling dice, making pairs, and assigning tree tokens to forest cards. At the end of the game, all positive-value forest cards are scored as normal. The two cards with the negative point value tokens are scored as follows: the player with the fewest tree tokens on that card takes the worst (lower scoring) token, and the player with the second fewest trees takes the other. In terms of overall gameplay, the goal is still the same – players want to have the most tree tokens on each forest card. However, for these two forest cards with the negative-value point tokens, players can be penalized for not having the most tree tokens. Just adds another layer of strategy when playing Sequoia!
The expansion for GPS includes 2 additional sets of Satellite tokens to accommodate up to 7 players, as well as some Specialized Satellite tokens to alter the gameplay. To play with Numberless Satellites, each player will start the game with 3 Satellite tokens that are unnumbered. The game plays as normal, but players can choose to place/move a Numberless Satellite in the play area. To play with the Specialty Satellites, each player receives one of each type of Specialty Satellite to begin the game. During gameplay, a player may choose to place one of their Specialty Satellites into play, and these are played face-down. Once all players have placed all Satellites, any Specialty Satellites in play are turned face-up and resolved. These Specialty Satellites provide special abilities/powers that can alter the gameplay. For example, the Damaged Satellite prevents opponents from winning if they share a space with your Damaged Satellite. These hidden Satellites elevate the strategy required to play GPS.
With all of that said, are these three expansions necessary? In my opinion, not really. If you are looking for elevated gameplay, then these expansions do offer some new strategic options, but they’re meant to be small, quick, and light filler-type games. The addition of tokens/pieces to accommodate higher player counts is probably the biggest selling point of these expansions to me. The ability to include one or two more people in the gameplay is appreciated, especially when sometimes you never know who all is going to show up to game night!
Official recommendation: If you’ve read my reviews of these base games, then you will know that Mountain Goats and Sequoia far outweigh GPS for me. That being said, the new little twists and strategic nuances are fun, but not worthwhile in my opinion when it comes to whether to get these expansions or not. The base games themselves already succeed at what they are trying to do, and these expansions (though they do add a couple of new elements) do not really enhance the game enough that I would actively look to add this pack to my collection. I got this expansion pack as an add-on during the Kickstarter campaign for these small-box games, but if I had not gotten it then, I probably would not go out and get it now.
