i don't like expansions

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pagliaman
Posts: 1
Joined: 11 May 2022, 17:00

i don't like expansions

Post by pagliaman »

Hi everybody :D !
I write this message because i want to express a feeling i have since i was around 140-150 elo in this game. i always had the impression that playing without expansions is way more skill-based than with expansions... I'm not a premium player so i play just what other people choose and i can't really distinguish expansions one from another properly, but the impression is always the same and gets even worse when prestige points are in. I'm not complaining because i lose (sometimes i had astonishing wins against much stronger opponents playing with prestige points), I'm complaining just because i find the game more boring that way. It's only me or do you feel the same :| ?
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jeffrog
Posts: 2
Joined: 03 February 2022, 12:05

Re: i don't like expansions

Post by jeffrog »

i agree with you EXCEPT for Gathering storm which is mandatory for me.
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hiei
Posts: 13
Joined: 02 October 2019, 05:28

Re: i don't like expansions

Post by hiei »

Expansions have different skill sets and some prefeer one from others, but the top ELO from Arena usually is between 1880 and 1930, which is pretty high for a card game I think.

Its fine if you like the base game the most. Its probably the highest mind game oriented expansion, and a few decisions and lucky draws can mean the game.

The brink of War, which is the prestige + goals expansion, is pretty broken in general but the game is balanced around this higher power creep, you either get a broken combo, or something that counters what your opponent is doing, and you get guaranteed fast start due to the possibility to search. By nature, the ending score is pretty volatile, but you get used to it the more you play. The main skill is game knowledge, exploiting your advantages while trying to play around your opponent's.

The blink of War is the combination of 3 expansions: Base + The Gathering storm is a expansion pretty similar to the original, but with less powerful develop options and more settle heavy and also the addition of goals. Base + TGS + Rebel vs Imperium adds Takeovers (mostly dont used), more military worlds and more develop potential. I dont play those mid expansions regularly to give a opinion on the main skill set.


Allien artifacts is the other crazy expansion with cards with tons of discounts and gigantic cardflow. Games can end pretty quickly with pretty low score. The main skill is maximizing opportunity cost, and minimizing your opponents. There is a orb variant that seems interesting but almost nobody, including me, plays.

Xenos is the least crazy expansion. The no Invation variant has very powerful consume powers that are near mandatory, and games usually end suddenly for chips. Its a skill set similar to the base game. The invation variant forces the players to get military, defence or repair powers to deal with the xeno invations. The powerful consume powers are more balanced in this variant, as a consume heavy strategy tends to struggle dealing with the invation. I think the main skill set is game planning, your strategy slowly evolves over time instead of morphing according to your draws or your opponent actions unlike other epansions, this is because there are enough cards for each viable strategy to make it work (ofc your starting position should dictate the plan).

I think knowing which expansion you play is pretty important to realize how they are played. I would reccomend you expanding to either The Gathering Storm (with or without goals), or to Xeno without the invation variant. Once you get used to the cards, you should probably give a try to the invation variant.
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