Empires of the North: Japanese Islands Expansion Review

What does the first expansion for Empires Bring to the table?

Japanese Islands Expansion

Designed by: Joanna Kijanka & Ignaciy Trzewiczek Published by : Portal Games

One of the first board games I reviewed on Cult Cardboard was Empires of the North. A tableau and engine builder, Empires impressed me greatly. It captured my attention so enthusiastically, it has been the number one game to hit the table in 2020. Mostly played as a solo game, with enough multiplayer game experiences in between, if I can set it up and have a modicum of time, I will try and get a session in.

So after nearly 50 plays in, tens of hours syphoned out of my life trying to kickstart my engines for victory, how well did the folks at Portal Games do for their first Empires of the North expansion?

A New Kind of Normal

Components

If you haven’t read my initial review of Empires of the North, I suggest you hit the link and read up for an overview of what I think Empires is all about. Up to scratch? Okay. Before we get into the meat of the expansion just know that this new content doesn’t radically change the wheel of Empires of the North. It doesn’t change the main feel, its clockwork machinations. The dynamics presented to you by the core game are still pretty much the pillars that reinforce this structure. This expansion probably won’t change your mind about whether to invest more time and money into the game if you’ve already had a sampling. It’s more Empires of the North with a Japanese influence.

For those who are fans of the game, well, this is going to feel comforting and exciting as these two new clans coming into the fold are quirky enough to challenge seasoned players.

With this expansion you now have two additional clans to choose from; the Umineko and Saikoro Clans. They each have the same outward appearances as the six main clans from Empires—33 cards per deck, player markers and two ship tokens each, with pink and purple hues adorning the card backs—what separates these new clans is their reliance on external interaction. Yes, these two clans have a heavy emphasis on using outward factors to influence and activate different cards within their decks. However, they go about it in different ways.

Let’s see how each new clan works its magic.

Sharing is Caring

Saikoro Deck

Much has been said how Empires of the North is a multiplayer solitaire affair. Sure players inhabit the same sand box, but they might as well be sitting in their own corner, making their own sand castle and occasionally flinging a handful of grains behind their shoulders, slightly inconveniencing an opponent. Intense back and forth, Empires is not.

If you wished there was more interactivity present the Saikoro clan might fulfill those needs. If Empires was a high school, these guys would be the socialites—the anti-wallflowers, the social butterflies pollinating their popularity from group to group. If you think they will be staying in their own corner, there will be no such thing. In fact, in order to muster a win with this clan it would be down right detrimental to be so introverted. Saikoro demands interaction between you and everyone else you play against, and the kicker is you’ll be helping your opponents out as much as yourself. It’s a friendly clan. No bullying here.

See, the main characteristics about this clan is exchanging goods, utilizing other’s clan actions and even helping them by untapping a card from its slumber. The kickback you get is points or obtaining those key resources you might need to utilize for other things that might fine tune your engine. This sharing mechanism makes the Saikoro clan an intricate deck to decipher—and a rewarding one once you trigger certain actions.

Sharing items, untapping exhausted cards, using opponent’s Empire is how the Saikoro clan works.

Need a wood to build a card onto your tableau? Why not exchange a stone for that lumber from a player’s stash. See an opportunity for a few points by unexhausting an opponent’s card? Untap it and gain two points for your efforts. The Saikoro clan has many of these types of useful cards mingling in its deck waiting to be constructed, but each one of those cards needs some level of help to achieve their true potential. It’s almost counterintuitive how much of this clan’s interactivity can be aimed at helping out other’s circumstances, even if you come out slightly ahead in the transaction compared to the person you are taking from. Not to say that this clan is all positivity, there is a potential here to be within negative interaction territory. You can, for example swipe a much needed resource out of the grip of a player before they can activate it, leaving them with a superfluous item. Or be in neutral territory where untapping a card in their tableau just doesn’t do anything for them, but its action could do wonders for you. However, Saikoro’s overarching gameplan isn’t to be a force of nature everyone else needs to contend with. It’s neutral or disruptive, not destructive.

Navigating, then, its main interactions is a treat. When you need to invest in other’s tableau, you need to consider and weigh how much they get from you as much as you get from them. Can that one resource exchange trigger an advantage in an opponent’s engine? Can untapping a card benefit them in their turn much more than you’d expect? Is keeping within your empire in this round more beneficial to you than going out and spreading your benevolence?

These questions pop up all the time. How you navigate Saikoro’s interactions will decide the level of success you muster from those exchanges, and the balancing act is devoted towards always coming out slightly ahead of these actions compared to your opponents. It can be heady at times, but thought provoking.

Island Hopping

Umineko Deck

The Umineko clan goes about interaction in a slightly different way. Instead of mingling with others, you’d be doing it with the nearby and distant islands through Umineko’s Docking phase and the cards associated. I say interacting, but in reality its interchange is mostly procedural, mundane bookkeeping. This Docking phase is nestled within the original four phases, and in a way resembles the Mackinnon clan’s Storage phase (in which Umineko actually gets one, too). What really separates this clan from the Saikoro is what happens after we are done with the procedural—and it’s why I feel this is the best of the two offerings in this expansion.

For starters, what does the Docking phase actually do? As stated above, this is a new phase that, in reality, doesn’t really do much in the way of substantive play. Right after the Lookout phase, the player will look at the nearby or distant island (the card with a Docking phase will tell you which to look for) and see what the left-most item is under the Pillage section of the card. Obtain these goods and assign them to the card, and all Docking phase cards. Great, free resources! Well not exactly and in fact you could say they are trapped inside these Docking phase cards, unless you manage to wring out the most from them while in your care. Here, the interesting stuff happens.

Most of these trapped resources must then be transferred from these Docking cards to Storage cards (much in the same way as the aforementioned Mackinnon clan). Once there, extracting points and resources is actuated by transferring between other Storage cards or assigning new resources from your own personal supply. The best way, however, is by resolving the Storage phase from these cards, but in order to do so there has to be a flurry of transfers from Docking to Storage cards to take advantage of those cards’ outcomes.

Moving items from Islands to Docking cards and ultimately Storage cards is the tricky, satisfying resolution you seek.

How you manage this careful balance is the brainy part. How much should you focus on constructing those cards? How much should you shuffle out items from them into Storage cards? Can you even find the resources to trigger the cards that allow you to even set these items in motion? The Saikoro clan works wonders if you manage to feed its economic conveyor belt of wrestling away items from Docking cards to feeding those Storage cards to fit the criteria needed to trigger its reward output. All that sounds dandy, but as with anything revolving resource management, what you want to do and can do may not always align—specially in the tight resource scarcity you always seem to find yourself playing Empires.

Two views

This all sounds great. Where’s my wallet? Hold on a sec…I may have written positive things here, and for most of you, this expansion is a shoe in for your Empires addiction. I bought this the week it came out without reservations. However, I do want to point out this expansion might not be for everyone.

Let me explain through the eyes of different gamers. If you play regularly solo and multiplayer game, this expansion will fit like a glove, dovetailing perfectly into your library.

However, if you’re mostly into solo sessions, the rub here is how much can you extract from this expansion. For starters, if you really enjoy the social aspect of board games and you play regularly in groups, both new clan decks will work swimmingly, as they are variations from the regular base clans found in Empires’ core set. However, if you are primarily a solo gamer, the value proposition is split in half. See, the Saikoro clan is probably the best example for a clan to exist in a multiplayer scenario. They have such high interactivity it’s worth having them around if you routinely engage in 2-4 player affairs. But back to that solo gamer, they would have much less use of such a clan since it relies so much on player interactivity. The Umineko clan, on the other hand, is almost tailor made to be a solo game deck since its interactions are primarily with the readily available island cards. No need for other players to be involved.

Where does that leave us then? For solo gamers would it be worth buying an expansion where half the content would be “locked” away? Is Umineko’s cool play structure enough to be worth the price of admission for an entire expansion? Only you can answer that, but there is the niggle. *

*As of this writing, Japanese Islands does have a new solo scenario for these Japanese factions that include game play for Saikoro’s special abilities, which you can download or purchase directly from the Portal Games online store, or other retailers. However, since I only review what’s in the box you can physically purchase, I don’t include that in my review of this expansion.

Here to Stay

Japanese Faction

For me, Japanese Islands is a clear example of how much Portal Games can expand the core experience of Empires of the North. It throws us two neat and interesting clans to sink our teeth into without revolutionizing the way Empire turns its wheel.

Yes, there might be a problem for solo gamers in how much value they can get with one clan being disadvantageous for such single-player sessions. However, those that regularly have group sessions as well a solo ones, this clan is a perfect new extension of Empires.

With two other expansions already out, what better way to set of on that adventure than with Japanese Islands.