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 review will be looking at the expansion for Tiny Epic Defenders – The Dark War. It introduces a slew of new components to increase variability, replayability, and add content to the base game. Following suit from the base game, The Dark War includes a number of new Hero cards, Enemies, Epic Foes, Artifacts, and Skill cards. It also provides alternate Region Cards to those of the base game, as well as General cards, that act as more advanced enemies. When setting up for a game, several of the base game Region cards will be replaced with those from this expansion, and the new Enemies, Artifacts, etc. are shuffled in with the base game content. In addition to a Hero card, each player will also receive an Experience card and tracker. The 6 Caravans will be placed within reach, as they are used in every play with the expansion. There are a handful of other components that may or may not come into play, depending on your variable setup. Pictured below are some of the expansion components.
The Dark War comes with two different game modes: Campaign or Single Game, and this review will be covering the Single Game mode. The gameplay with The Dark War is essentially identical to that of the base Tiny Epic Defenders, with a few new twists and additions. The game ends when the players have defeated the Epic Foe, but before they can even get there, the Heroes must escort 6 Caravans from the outer regions into the Capital City. Each round, a new Caravan will be added to an outer region and the players must use their turns to get these innocent civilians to the capital. With the expansion, players will have the opportunity to earn XP on their turns, from various actions. XP can then be spent to perform special actions/abilities (like moving a Caravan). Until all 6 Caravans have reached the Capital City, the Epic Foe cannot be defeated! Depending on your setup, each outer region card from the expansion includes addition components/actions to be performed at certain points throughout the game. For example, the new Ruins card comes with Death tokens that can be taken and used later in the game to restore HP. The new Coast card has Fleet Dice that are rolled and used accordingly. Beyond those additions, the gameplay is the same. Players draw cards from the Turn deck, dealing with Enemies as necessary, until ultimately they reveal and fight the Epic Foe. Players win if they have escorted all 6 Caravans to the Capital City and defeated the Epic Foe. But if the Capital City falls, then all players lose.
Gamelyn Games usually hits it out of the park when it comes to component quality, but The Dark War leaves a lot to be desired if you ask me. The biggest disappointment are the actual Caravan constructs. They are these little cardboard wagon-looking things that are cool in theory, but in reality are really finicky. The top part of the wagon is curved, and the way Gamelyn Games accomplished this was to have grooves in the cardboard to allow for ‘bending’ that lets the top get that curve feel. However, these were SO frustrating to assemble. For starters, since they are so small, I had a hard time bending all the grooves to get a smooth curve, but not bending them too far that the cardboard started to rip off. And then the slots to insert the pieces together were really tight fits, and I ended up stripping edges, or just downright ripping some pieces. And now that they’re assembled, it’s a tight fit back in the box. I’ve had such great experience with production quality from the Tiny Epic Games, that this expansion disappointed me.
Official recommendation: Is The Dark War a must-have for the Tiny Epic Defenders player? I’d say it depends. If you play the base game often, then I would absolutely recommend including this expansion. After numerous plays of the base game, the gameplay can get a little repetitive and stagnant. The Dark War really helps shake that up by offering loads of new content. And since certain components only come into play with certain setups, you’ve really got a ton of variability now. If, on the other hand, Tiny Epic Defenders isn’t hitting your table often enough to feel exhausted, then I don’t really think this expansion is necessary. Yes, it adds some new components and content, but the overall goal of the game is the same – defeat the Epic Foe. There are a few more things to do, some new twists to deal with, and new enemies to fight, but ultimately it’s the same game. If you want a more involved game, add in The Dark War. But if you’re perfectly content with how it plays already, then leave it out. This one is really up to the player!
