Orleans: Invasion – This cooperative expansion requires players to work together to defend the city of Orleans from outside threats, adding a new layer of strategy and cooperation to the game. Please note: Some of the tiles contained in the game may come with ONLY German names printed. This does not impact gameplay and the names are translated in the rulebook. Cull; The late game is all about thinning the bag. It’s time to take out everything you don’t need as you go, and putting it into the central board that scores points. You will make it more efficient to draw for the final rounds and ensure you get the right pieces at the right time. Knights;A key worker in the late early game / early mid game, this is the worker that allows you to gain more tokens per turn. Again the earlier the better, but not too early as you may not actually be able to do anything with the extra pieces!

The expansion includes a new scenario for 2-5 players, a co-operative scenario, a two-player only duel scenario and a number of solo scenarios. We never play any solo games, so the focus of this expansion for us was the duel scenario and the co-operative scenario. We didn’t really feel likeOrléansneeded any expansion content, given that it plays extremely well with two players and is the style of competitive game that doesn’t get very in-your-face, but let’s see ifOrléans: Invasionis a must have for us. Orléans Invasion Gameplay – Invasion I like, “point salad” games. That is, games that have multiple paths to acquiring victory points. Games like Pulsar 2849 or Rajas of the Ganges.

These expansions introduce new mechanics, additional components, and alternative ways to play, ensuring that even the most seasoned Orleans players will continue to find new challenges and excitement in the game: Randomness of the workers. That’s to say, you randomly unveil workers that you then have to distribute in the best way possible. Games like Alien Frontiers.

In the city of Orléans, you can take trade trips to other cities to acquire coveted goods and build trading posts. You need followers and their abilities to expand your dominance by putting them to work as traders, builders, and scientists. Knights expand your scope of action and secure your mercantile expeditions. Craftsmen build trading stations and tools to facilitate work. Scholars make progress in science, and last but not least it cannot hurt to get active in monasteries since with monks on your side you are much less likely to fall prey to fate. Also, in the base game, the Town Hall Beneficial Deeds board is a bit boring, but it’s the only way to thin your followers from your bag, so you will use it.Player interaction is mid-range with it mainly be racing to get the citizens or build in the nearest areas on the map. Want more gold? Recruit boatmen, more resources, farmers. Craftsmen offer technology which can be permanently added to one space on your player board – making it cheaper forever. The trader gets you a choice of extra buildings, which are basically extra action spaces for you. The monks act as a wild follower and I’ve already mentioned the knights and scholars.

Expansions and Variants

Monks; Monks can be anything. Get as many of them, as early and with as little else in your bag. This is the way to be flexible. this is the way to always maximise your actions. Don’t end up with more monks than you need, but in reality this is almost impossible as everyone will rush for the monks. So which? Orleans narrowly takes it for me, having the expansions and the options within the game. However, I do like the movement and streamlined nature of Altiplano. Maybe get both?! Players must strategically allocate their drawn followers to various actions on their player board. Each action requires a specific combination of follower types to be completed. The available actions include:

New Events : a completely new set of 34 Hour Glass Tiles from which 18 are semi-randomly chosen for each game Orleans can be a little overwhelming at first as you try to get to grip with the options.The gameplay is straightforward though, and everything on your player board makes sense. It's especially important to have everything out and set-up as you explain how to play. Set-up is going to take a while too. I've upgraded my copy with the fan kit which lets you use meeples instead of the cardboard chits for characters, and technology, plus a fifth player. Whether looking for more plates to spin, or adding a combative streak, Trade & Intrigue adds a lot more depth to Orléans.

Orleans boasts a rich and immersive theme that transports players to the bustling city of Orleans and its surrounding provinces in medieval France. The beautifully illustrated game components and evocative artwork help to create a vivid game world that players can lose themselves in. The various actions, buildings, and follower types are all thematically grounded in the game’s setting, adding to the sense of immersion and world-building. This strong thematic foundation not only makes the game more enjoyable to play but also helps to make the gameplay mechanics more intuitive and accessible for new players. For me, the co-operative Invasion scenario is the stand-out in the expansion box. The duel was also great, but I did win it on the first play-through, which gives us less motivation to play it again. It seemed like we were both going to lose it, and if you did, I think you’d be desperate to play again to try and win. We also need to try the additional 1-5 player competitive scenario. Orleans can be a little overwhelming at first as you try to get to grip with the options.The gameplay is straightforward though, and everything on your player board makes sense. It’s especially important to have everything out and set-up as you explain how to play. Set-up is going to take a while too. I’ve upgraded my copy with the fan kit which lets you use meeples instead of the cardboard chits for characters, and technology, plus a fifth player. In addition, you will have to fortify the outer walls by building trade posts on all of the outer cities of the map. But in case you were thinking this all sounded too easy, each player has a personal, often selfish, objective that they must complete before the game ends.

I love the complexity of the puzzle provided by both the cooperative game and the duel scenario. Both give you a reason to decide to go about an action in a certain way. You might travel round a board in a slightly circuitous route to collect more resources to pay your dues in the duel scenario. Or in the Invasion scenario you might travel to the next location for a fortified town, via a spot you need to go to for your personal objective. The puzzle is all about efficiency (and I love efficiency!). Both the scenarios have resulted in really tight games for us and it really gives us an appetite to play more. So what about the follow-on, Altiplano? Should you skip Orleans and just get that? This is a difficult choice. Altiplano plays very similarly but feels very different. Part of this is the addition of movement. You have to be on the correct 'island' to perform an action as well as assigning the correct resources (followers in Orleans). Taking place over 18 rounds, during which players may have anywhere from one to four or five turns, Orleans has a strong solitary element, with two to four players each beginning the game with four worker (“follower”) tokens, using them to gain more followers, earn money or goods or development points, or move around the game’s map to build trading posts. There are more things to do on the board than any player will be able to do in a single turn, and early in the game a player will only get one turn in a round—usually just adding a single follower to his/her supply. Such choices have long-lasting effects on what that player might be able to do later in the game; some moves open up more possible moves for later, while others are aimed primarily at increasing the player’s game-end points total.Central to the gameplay of Orleans is its innovative bag-building mechanic. Players begin the game with a set of basic followers, represented by tokens that are placed in a draw bag. Each round, players draw a specific number of follower tokens from their bag and place them on their player board. These tokens represent various professions such as farmers journalists, knights, and craftsmen, which are essential for performing different actions throughout the game. The Duel scenario didn’t ignite my passions in quite the same way, partially becauseOrléansis already a sound two-player experience, but it probably does just about define itself as my preferred way to play two-playerOrléans. OverallOrléans Invasionis a very solid expansion that I strongly recommend to anyone who enjoyed the base game. Fiona’s Final Thoughts Time is always a pressing issue. The cathedral must be completed in the third round at the latest, and if a tile can no longer be placed elsewhere with an action, it must go into the bell tower, with that tower’s toll ending the round.