Top 10 (More!) Required Board Game Expansions

boardgamequest.com:

In 2015, Tony wrote a Top 10 list about the ten required expansions. Well, it’s been nearly a decade and board gaming has only grown exponentially since then. I wanted to take the time to go through all of the expansions that have been released in the last (nearly) ten years to discuss what expansions feel required for their base game these days.

While expansions may have different shapes and sizes (and prices) compared to what they were in 2015, the idea behind expansion content seems to be roughly the same: add more to the base game, and/or tweak large portions of the original game to change or fix portions of the design.

However, for this list of required expansions, there are a few things I considered when curating these titles. First, does this expansion help fulfill the original thesis of the base game? Second, does this expansion surpass the base game and create its own unique identity to establish a new experience? And finally, does the existence of this expansion make the base game feel inadequate by comparison?

So, without further ado, let’s look at our Top 10 (More!) Required Expansions.

If any titles on this list are reviewer favorites, this would be the one. While Root has several big and small box expansions, I feel that the one that adds the most to the game’s life and excitement is the smallest: an alternative playing deck. By replacing the original deck with this new one, players experience larger actions with more nuanced interactions, allowing the cards to play a larger role in the game than ever before. This is not a beginner-friendly choice, nor one to play with those adverse to randomness, but for those looking for the most chaotic game of Root, the Exiles and Partisans Deck is certainly required.

Required expansions often come to fulfill the original game’s thesis in a more cohesive way than the base game provided on its own, and Xia: Embers of a Forsaken Star is no different. By adding new sector tiles, a new cargo type, new ships, and an