Wednesday Blogs
Welcome to another edition of the Wednesday Blogs! This week, I opine on how an expansion is sometimes just what's needed to bring a game back onto your table...
It happens to all of us as board gaming enthusiasts; a game we played until the pieces started to wear, suddenly finds itself relegated to the top shelf. Part of this is that there's just too many good games coming out, seemingly every day (not that I'm complaining) and then, as always, life just gets in the way sometimes.
Something as simple as getting an old game out, setting it up and playing it, is suddenly competing with other distractions (such as keeping up a weekly blog!) and before you know it, a week turns into a month which turns into "I forgot how much fun this game was...and also forgot the rules."
One thing I've found that can quickly cure this affliction, is a well-timed expansion. Nothing gets the juices flowing for bringing an old favorite back to the table like the smell of freshly punched expansion material. Now for sports board gamers, this usually means a new season set. Maybe the season you were born, maybe a season from before you were born that only lives in the lore of history, or maybe your age 15 season (when you had nothing to do except pay attention to sports.)
But not always, take for instance, the newest expansion for Breakaway Football, Red Zone. This expansion allows you to play out a game with any of the 16 previously released teams in around 15 minutes (or less!) Using the offensive cards from the teams, each team gets two "highlight" drives per quarter and before you know, you've got a final score. Talk about the perfect companion for that long put off season project.
Speaking of which, this expansion even comes with a weekly standings sheet so you can track the ups and downs of your team throughout the season. This is really a great idea for expansions; adding a new twist to a game, that enhances the original.
Tonight on the Wild Card Wednesday show, I'll be playing out a game with this, so you can see for yourself how quick (and fun) the Red Zone is to get out and finish. I really hope that more companies can come out with compelling expansion like this in the future so even more games can come down from the top shelf, back to the tabletop.
Steve