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. 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. 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.

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). The Trade and Intrigue expansion offers a new Beneficial Deeds board that quite frankly, should have been THE board all along. The one in the base game offers up money and is pretty stale. It’s not useless, but unless you have some townsfolk to dump...you probably won’t look to it as a viable strategy. 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.

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.

Prosperity : An extensive scenario introducing new Events and a Carpenter that all players may use to build Structures for victory points, designed by Inka and Markus Brand. However, unlike in Orleans, there is not as much to do with the harder to get resources, other than score points. This makes things simpler, as everyone is broadly following the same path to attempted victory, but you lose the options you have in Orleans. 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).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.

Orleans: Trade & Intrigue – This expansion introduces new actions, events, and intrigue cards, adding more depth and variety to the gameplay.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. 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. 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. All of this comes together quite wonderfully and creates a challenging game that demands cooperation. The personal objectives ensure that you don’t just rely on rehearsed tactics to win the game but instead must spend at least some of your time chasing after your own selfish needs. Orléans Invasion Gameplay – The Duel 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. New Events : a completely new set of 34 Hour Glass Tiles from which 18 are semi-randomly chosen for each gameTech 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. Bathhouse & Bar; I like this combo because the bar earns you more coins per round with just a monk, and the bathhouse allows you to draw another token from the bag. If you use the bar first, this can mean that if you draw a monk you will be able to play the bar twice in one round – that’s a lot of money per round! 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: 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.