Orleans: Stories – This narrative-driven expansion adds a campaign mode, where players can progress through a series of scenarios with evolving objectives, rules, and components. 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:

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 Looking for an engaging and strategic board game experience that takes you on a journey to medieval France? In this Orleans Board Game Review, we will provide an in-depth analysis of this award-winning game. Throughout the game ypu’ll be challenged on your strategic planning and resource management skills. With that in mind, let’s explore the heart of Orleans and discover why it’s earned a spot on our board game shelf. 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.

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. New Events : a completely new set of 34 Hour Glass Tiles from which 18 are semi-randomly chosen for each game 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. 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! New Beneficial Deeds : a new Beneficial Deeds board providing completely new rewards for sending away your Followers

Whether looking for more plates to spin, or adding a combative streak, Trade & Intrigue adds a lot more depth to Orléans.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. 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: Tech for Village; Tech from craftsman is a powerful bonus action that has more effect the earlier you play it. The more turns it is on the board the more you will be able to use it. Getting tech starts with a tech that will cover a farmer – that farmer should be the one for the village. If that’s not immediately obvious, I see it as key because this farmer is one of a three piece set and because this action will be the one that allows you to get more tech.

Farmers Adds; Like the roads, the farmers should not be forgotten – they give you food which might avoid the misfortune of losing 5 coins in some turns. The items also score points and going far on this path can be worthwhile. Especially if you can bury the farmers on the board waiting for other tokens to circle round. Orleans: Trade & Intrigue – This expansion introduces new actions, events, and intrigue cards, adding more depth and variety to the gameplay. In Orléans, you will always want to take more actions than possible, and there are many paths to victory. The challenge is to combine all elements as best as possible with regard to your strategy.When everyone is done, the event tile drawn at the start of the round is resolved, and the whole thing is repeated with a new start player. Boreleans? There’s new place tiles, where you can send your Followers to partake in new actions. Last of all, there’s some new Event tiles. (34 of them, to be precise.) This differs from the base game. Now you cannot guarantee that a certain quota of Event types will occur during the game. These Events keep you on your toes!

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). Before receiving theInvasionexpansion, we hadn’t played a whole lot of Orléans, but the games we did play were really enjoyable two -player experiences.Orléans Invasionis a big box expansion forOrléans which contains lots of scenarios designed by both the original designer and by Inka and Markus Brand who are also really well renowned designers. This game is quite simply, amazing. It’s very easy to learn but can become quite the brain twister as you try to determine what “townsfolk” you want to put into your bag for the next round. You’ll have 28 rounds to pull it all off. Those 18 rounds are determined by (3X)6 tiles that are randomly shuffled before the game. Maybe in the second round you’ll have to pay 1 coin for the goods you just acquired? Maybe everybody else will get one coin for every trade house they built on the map while you failed to do it because...THATS JUST NOT YOUR STRATEGY!. 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.

During medieval Orléans, you must assemble a following of farmers, merchants, knights, monks, etc. to gain supremacy through trade, construction and science in medieval France. 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.