Plays: 6 Players: 1 – 4
Appearance
The front of the box matches the art style of the base game but has more detail and overall a nicer appearance. The back of the box states some of the new modules that are included, shows some of the new components and makes it clear that this is an expansion. The new double layered player boards are much bigger than the base game player boards and have more artwork making them look more like ships. The only pity is that my boards are a little offset so the artwork on the bottom board doesn’t quite line up with the top board. Also, it’s best to place the 2 discs on each space sideways so you don’t have similar problems with bumping them to the base game boards. There are various cut outs on these boards for other tiles which have the same art style and fit nicely. There are an entire new set of quest tiles which have slightly darker artwork on the back to match the new player boards but I don’t think that this was necessary. All these cardboard components are the same quality as the base game. The newly included cards are marked with a U in the bottom left corner to make them easy to identify and separate if necessary. The new project cards have the same art style as the base game and have the same colour as the 2nd edition (in my 1st edition the card colours are slightly different on the front and back so can be identified when in the face down stack).
Gameplay: New Mechanics
For a gameplay summary of the base game see my previously published review. There are 5 modules along with new project cards which are added to the base game A and B decks. These cards are similar to the base game but include new mechanisms such as placing figures on an influence track or next to the combat tokens meaning you gain bonuses when anyone fights for that nation or can choose from 2 combat tokens when fighting. There are also new cards that reward you for stopping at certain spots on the board, gaining victory point income when a certain condition is met and allowing you to remove influence cubes form the main board. There is also a brand new campaign which has a similar feel and writing style as the base game campaign but is about half of the length with several new legacy tiles. Some of these new legacy tiles offer some rewards based off of revealing the top card on the project card deck adding some push your luck to the game often seen in some of the designers other games.
The first of the new modules is the home ports, which can be used in any scenario of the expansion or the base game, and offer variable player powers. 336
These must be unlocked by removing 2 discs, the same as your ship abilities in the base game, and offers an immediate 10 victory point by spending the coin cost listed. These powers vary from being able to use sugar as any good, bonuses for fighting for certain nations, giving different benefits when delivering to cities and the ability to gain additional bonuses or have an additional explorer on the explorer track. These powers aren’t game breaking but offer asymmetric benefits between players.
The resistance tile module is new to the expansion and gives 2 different benefits. Its main benefit is that when you liberate a location from a nation you can place that nations cube onto it and receive the benefit you covered. You cannot have a cube from the same nation next to each other however. When you fill all 4 spaces the cubes are all removed, you receive 3 money and also 1 victory point per combat token on your board. There is also a new village action you can unlock which gives you 4 money immediately and you can now spend 3 combat points as a village action to take a nations influence cube from the village space your ship is on and place it onto your resistance tile earning double its listed reward. This tile is used with two of the other modules, uprising and freeing the Caribbean.
In the uprising module you add a new combat legacy tile to the board. When fighting you may now fight against a nation rather than for a nation. If you do this, you ignore the bonus printed on the top of the tile for most/fewest ownership. When you remove a cube, if possible you can place it onto your resistance tile for the benefits as listed above. The two actions added are liberate city and liberate village. For liberate city you must spend 6 combat points to gain 3 money, 1 victory point per occupied city (any nation) and remove a cube of the nation you are fighting against. For liberate village you spend 4 combat points, remove one cube from the nation you are fighting against from a village space and receive 3 victory points for each neighbouring nation cube to that location.
In the freeing the Caribbean module you do not fight for nations at any point and are removing nation cubes from the board placed at the start of the game and at the end of rounds. This means that there is no nation scoring at the end of the game. As above since you are fighting against nations you ignore all bonuses for most/fewest ownership markers on combat tiles. 218