Review: 1500 expansion: England

This review assumes that the reader is familiar with the boardgame 1500: The New World by Dan Verssen Games. If not, you can read about it here: https://dystopiangamereviews.blogspot.com/2019/10/review-1500-new-world.html

As this review will look at one of the expansions for the board game 1500: The New World, there can be overlap between the individual reviews, because the review of another expansion will be posted soon. The first part will explain how AI works, while the second part will feature the English deck. 

A copy of this expansion was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.

The backs of the English player and AI deck.

In general:

The set gives you everything to play as a specific country during this historical time period. Included are 56 cards for a player deck, 56 cards for an AI deck and rules to incorporate AI-decks. The deck allows the player to include an extra artificial player to the game. So instead of having just two players, they can be boosted by an artificial one. This means that the player and the AI can play as the same nation at the same time.

The deck includes unique cards and a special mix of cards, as you no longer draw from the same deck as other players. The AI cards are marked as such, with a special background and ‘AI’ on the front. They are easily identified and separated.

If the AI is included, it always goes last in player order. The AI draws cards as normal, but no one looks at them yet. Instead they are placed in a row and first the cards marked ‘Start’ are played, from left to right. Then the other cards are played, going from left to right again. Cards that can’t be played or would make no sense to play are used to advance the AI along the Royal Support Track or minimizing the Royal Support of the human players. Any remaining cards are used for building or reducing colonies (from the highest scoring player).

Normal rules for losing points for struggling colonies apply to the AI and they are removed afterwards. The AI targets the player with the most points, which could be a human player, or another AI. If the AI is the highest-scoring player, it takes on the player in the second position. If there are equals, the target is randomly decided.

Interesting is that some cards feature a minimum condition, so that for example up to 6 colonies may be struggled, but at least 4 must be chosen in order to trigger the card’s condition. This is of course to help the flow of the game and ensure that cards are left over for the Royal Support track.

The AI and player deck are almost identical, except for some nation cards. The AI contributes to the game as it allows you to play solo, provide a different challenge and adds to the replay ability of the game. 

Unique English cards, note that they work differently in the player or AI deck.

The English deck:

The England Expansion features a deck of 56 cards for a human player or 56 cards for an AI deck. In the player deck there are 10 cards devoted to special British powers. The AI and player deck are identical. The powers include ‘Sea Dogs’, where a player has to either remove 4 colonies of their own or lose three points. The ‘pirates!’ is a reaction card and allows you to steal points when another player is counting them. You gain the monopolies points instead. The ‘Domino’ card makes allows you to reduce an equal number of colonies from another player after someone else has reduced colonies. The AI cards all work differently and as the Sea dogs for example for the player to chose between losing three points or being set back two along the royal support track. The pirates don’t target a specific player and the domino allows you to reduce six colonies.

The cards are different between the AI/Player deck. The nation cards are interesting in that they provide the target with a choice or that that they are reaction cards. As such the English deck is aimed at intercepting the other players. The downsides of course are that the reaction cards can only be triggered under specific circumstances, which might or might not arrive. The reaction cards don’t work so well for the AI -they can’t decide when to play their cards after all-, so they have been changed to something similar.

Overall, the English expansion allows the player to incorporate an AI or play as England themselves. The decks are tailored towards a certain playstyle, give a bigger challenge, richer experience, and it adds to the historical depth of the game. It will not drastically alter the game, but it will enrich your experience. The expansion is certainly recommended for solo-players.