Orléans: Invasion Review

Before receiving the Invasion expansion, we hadn’t played a whole lot of Orléans, but the games we did play were really enjoyable two -player experiences. Orléans Invasion is a big box expansion for Orléans which contains lots of scenarios designed by both the original designer and by Inka and Markus Brand who are also really well renowned designers.

The expansion includes a new scenario for 2-5 players, a co-operative scenario, a two-player only duel scenario and a number of solo scenarios. We never play any solo games, so the focus of this expansion for us was the duel scenario and the co-operative scenario. We didn’t really feel like Orléans needed any expansion content, given that it plays extremely well with two players and is the style of competitive game that doesn’t get very in-your-face, but let’s see if Orléans: Invasion is a must have for us.

Orléans Invasion Gameplay – Invasion

The co-operative mode is the biggest overhaul to the base game. In it we see the titular invasion of Orléans, with you being responsible for defending both the city and the surrounding area. You'll have to stockpile for war, that means soldiers must be hired, food must be preserved and money... war runs on money! Should you fail to donate enough of these resources to the city by the end of the game then you will all collectively lose.

In addition, you will have to fortify the outer walls by building trade posts on all of the outer cities of the map. But in case you were thinking this all sounded too easy, each player has a personal, often selfish, objective that they must complete before the game ends.

The Invasion scenario is truly a co-operative game, and to facilitate this you will have a new set of spots to place your workers. These allow you to donate money or goods to the stockpiles, but also to donate them to other players in need. And you will need to for should anyone go bankrupt then instead of undergoing torture like the base game, you instead all instantly lose. You can also use one of the new actions to steal another player's action, which can be useful should you desperately need to perform that one specific action this round but lack the workers.

All of this comes together quite wonderfully and creates a challenging game that demands cooperation. The personal objectives ensure that you don't just rely on rehearsed tactics to win the game but instead must spend at least some of your time chasing after your own selfish needs.

Orléans Invasion Gameplay – The Duel

The Duel is the two-player only scenario, which is a race to complete four objectives. Every round, a predetermined bad thing will happen and if you can't fulfil the requirements, you automatically lose the game. Typically, these will be things like paying taxes, so you need enough money, or paying your dues with a certain value of goods. It can really rock your strategy if you’re collecting goods towards and end game objective, so good planning is key.

The best thing about this scenario for me was that it introduced pick up and deliver. Two objectives were about collecting resources and delivering them to a specific board location. The Duel was definitely the most mentally taxing game of Orléans we've played!

Amy’s Final Thoughts

It's great to see that the Orléans: Invasion expansion adds so much interesting content to the game, it almost seems petty to complain that there is no way you will fit all of it in the base box! I was incredibly impressed that the co-operative scenario didn't feel like a tacked-on experience, but rather a fully fleshed out game that just so happened to share some components and mechanics with Orléans. So long as your table can put up with an increased footprint to an already large game then it's well worth playing.

The Duel scenario didn't ignite my passions in quite the same way, partially because Orléans is already a sound two-player experience, but it probably does just about define itself as my preferred way to play two-player Orléans. Overall Orléans Invasion is a very solid expansion that I strongly recommend to anyone who enjoyed the base game.

Fiona’s Final Thoughts

I love the complexity of the puzzle provided by both the cooperative game and the duel scenario. Both give you a reason to decide to go about an action in a certain way. You might travel round a board in a slightly circuitous route to collect more resources to pay your dues in the duel scenario. Or in the Invasion scenario you might travel to the next location for a fortified town, via a spot you need to go to for your personal objective. The puzzle is all about efficiency (and I love efficiency!). Both the scenarios have resulted in really tight games for us and it really gives us an appetite to play more.

For me, the co-operative Invasion scenario is the stand-out in the expansion box. The duel was also great, but I did win it on the first play-through, which gives us less motivation to play it again. It seemed like we were both going to lose it, and if you did, I think you'd be desperate to play again to try and win. We also need to try the additional 1-5 player competitive scenario.

Orléans Invasion is an expansion box crammed full of really high quality content. We don't expand many games, but we are so glad we did with Orleans. For me, Orléans Invasion is my favourite board game expansion ever!