Seasons: Path of Destiny

Seasons: Path of Destiny is the second – and in all probability, last expansion for the Seasons board game. If you’ve arrived here without the base game and you like drafting and tableau building games that work best at two players – I’d strongly suggest you give it a try. It’s a very fun and underrated strategy game, with good artwork, suitable for midweight game fans.

If you are, like me, a fan of the base game and are looking for a little (but not a lot) more variety in gameplay; this is, of the two expansions, the one I would recommend (for more of the same, look no further than Seasons: Enchanted Kingdom). In the box are 21 new power cards (42 cards if you count both copies), a few of these allow you to place the 10 replica cards, 2 trap tokens and 2 deadbolt tokens. Also in the box are 6 Special ability tokens and 10 Enchantment cards, adding to those introduced in the first expansion. New is the Die of Destiny, and the 20 destiny point tokens.

There are no big scorers in the new power cards, but they do add a “Destiny theme” in that they add more luck into the Seasons gameplay. 8 of the 21 cards do this by allowing you to look at or draw from the deck or discard piles. Of these, special mention goes to “Twist of Fate”. If it is drafted in the initial setup, you immediately discard it and draw two cards from the deck, selecting one to add to your hand. Then, all copies of “Twist of Fate” are removed from the game. Essentially giving you a shot at a random card if you don’t like the draft selection.

If you don’t fancy drawing from the deck to fill up your summoning slots, then you have the option of the “Eolis’s Replicator”. This card allows you to, on your turn, discard a water energy to place a “Replica” power card. These do nothing except score 7 points at the end of the game – if you place all 10, that’s a nice, cheap 70 points.

Four of the new power cards add to the “take that” element of Seasons. I will name the ones that use the new tokens. Augosian Tangleweed lets you put a deadbolt token on an opponents familiar to remove all its effects (apart from endgame point value). Urmian Psychic Cage enters play with a trap token on it, when the token is on the card, a player putting into play or summoning a power card must either discard that card without using its effects, or sacrifice a power card. Doing so removes the token from the game.

I mentioned in the previous expansion’s review that the special abilities could easily just be, in this case, six more cards with a one off effect. They are a nice, yet almost completely pointless additional component. The icons make sense once you know what they are, so keep the rule book close at the start of the game.

Enchantments, as in the 1st expansion, are cards with rule additions or alterations you can pick one of for any given game. This lets you add a small change to mix things up a little. The ones in this expansion are a mixed bag, some change the game more than others. One specifies each type of energy yields two crystals when transmuted – in all seasons. This could make it easier for younger players. The two “Destiny” Enchantments, add the only significant change to gameplay or scoring introduced across both the Seasons expansions. If you play with either of the two (very similar) Enchantments that reference the die, then whenever you select from the season’s dice, you may, instead of using those effects, choose to roll the Die of Destiny instead.

The Destiny Die has 6 sides, mostly giving you destiny tokens, but you also get the chance of crystals, the summoning gauge star, or up to two energy tokens of your choice. The player with the most destiny points at the end of the game gets a bonus 20 prestige points. This has on one occasion, won me the game. However in all other plays it has felt like this is not enough of a boost to make it worthwhile. It is nice to have the choice though, so we have chosen to use it in a lot of our games since getting the expansion.

Overall, does this expansion enhance the Seasons experience? Not by much. That said, if the base game gets to your table a lot, and you’d like to see some new cards that add a bit more luck, it could be a nice addition for you. I like it because of the increase in likelihood of getting cards that let you draw more cards – I’m always right up against my max summoning gauge. If you like to collect expansions, and like knowing you can have both of them just about fitting in the base game box, then I hope you have fun rolling your Destiny die.