3000 Scoundrels: Double or Nothing Expansion Review

boardgamequest.com:

Board games that I find average, but with great potential, that get an expansion always grab my attention. 3000 Scoundrels is no exception. Our very own Andrew Smith reviewed the base game in August of 2023, and I couldn’t agree more with his overall conclusion: “Generally, I’d say 3000 Scoundrels is a well-produced game with some great ideas. But it doesn’t have enough depth to the gameplay to really make it worth keeping around in my collection…” So, does the new Double or Nothing expansion help it find its footing? Let’s find out. 

3000 Scoundrels: Double or Nothing has two big additions to the game: advanced safes, and loans. At its heart, 3000 Scoundrels is a game about the players trying to steal the highest valued safes, as that’s where the majority of your points will come from. The expansion modifies some of these safes with the same type of clear modifier cards that exist to modify the scoundrel cards. These modifiers can be “When Stolen” abilities that can modify your actions in-game, or “End of Game” abilities that grant extra victory points if the conditions on the modifier are met.

The other major addition is the ability to take loans. These loans exist for two reasons. The first is to “Hire Reporter”, which lets players gain 1 debt in order to scout a safe at any site. Again, it is these safes that are your victory points, and it’s quite hard to find the most valuable ones since they are face-down for the entirety of the game. The ability to scout is a main action that you can take on your turn, but by adding this as an additional option, this gives players the flexibility to scale up their operations quickly and still scout, or double scout in one turn.

The other half of the loan action is to get