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“More salt, sir?”
If you were consulting your doctor, they would probably tell you that you should have less salt in your diet. If you were asking a board gamer, they would suggest you probably need some Extra Salt in your Sea Salt & Paper game. Bombyx released a mini expansion to the mini game that was such a big hit last year, and here, I’m going to take a look at what’s in that small packet and how it adds to the small box.
The Game
The Extra Salt expansion is pretty much just a pack of cards. Ten cards, if we’re being precise, of which two are instructions and eight get shuffled into the rest of the deck. If you’re someone like me who doesn’t really like to keep hold of the expansion boxes if you can fit stuff in the base game, then great news! The packaging for these ten cards is a recyclable paper, like that your salt used to come in at the chippy… I’m told. And the base game box is big enough for these cards to slot in. Especially when you remove the now outdated reference cards.
So what do these eight cards do for the gameplay? Well, they introduce five new powers and scoring options for you. The first is a scoring card for the number of crabs you have gathered, much like the fish, boat and penguin scoring cards in the base game. One point per crab. So far, pretty easy.
The next three cards, the two jellyfish and one lobster, form new combinations with existing cards. When paired with a swimmer, the jellyfish scores a point and, for their next turn, the opposing player can only draw one card from the deck. They do not play any cards, nor can they end the round. For the lobster, he pairs with the crabs and scores a point when he does so. When played, you draw the top five cards from the deck, add one to your hand and shuffle the rest back into the deck.
The last four cards, one seahorse and three starfish, are special cards. The seahorse can fill in for a Collector card, such as the penguin, shell, octopus or sailor. You have to have at least one of the chosen card for it to make up the set and you cannot score more than the maximum points shown on the card. The three starfish can be played with any duo card (crabs, swimmers, sharks, fish) but cancels their effect. Instead, it makes the pair worth three points, which gives a little more flexibility.
Likes & Dislikes
Like: easy to insert extra cards
Like: adds a little extra depth to the game
Dislike: There are only 8 cards
Final Thoughts
I quite like Sea Salt & Paper as a base game, I think it’s a neat little system, quite easy to teach and aesthetically pleasing. A lot of other people agree with those views, since it was nominated for a fair few awards in 2022 and 2023. It’s one of those games where luck is a significant factor, but the game
is so short, it really doesn’t matter too much. And adding in the Extra Salt expansion gives a little extra to the game. The cards can just be shuffled in and don’t really require that much extra explaining to make sense so there’s no need to worry with a new player. What does bug me a little though is that there is only eight cards. The base game has 58 to begin with, and most rounds tend to see maybe maximum 20 at a time. Which does mean the new cards will be few and far between when you play, which is not always satisfying.
Does that matter too much though? No, not really. Like I’ve said before, the game is pretty quick so you’ll be shuffling up and re-dealing within about 5 minutes and there’s always time for just one more game.
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