Review of Orléans: Invasion

Summary of the Components

Invasion comes with an impressive array of components necessary for its six variants, including new boards, new cards, and a variety of other new tokens.

Quality: Like the original, Invasion has lots of good-quality cardboard bits, good cardstock cards, and even a few new wooden bits. My only complaint is that the new boards for some of the lesser variants are cardstock rather than cardboard. I mean, really, seven different new cardboard boards would have been excessive, but nonetheless the cardstock stands out in the center of the table. 4+/5.

Beauty: Invasion has the same attractive woodcut style of the original, with new art by Klemenz Franz. 5/5.

Usability: The original game had strong iconography and Invasion continues that, albeit with some nuisances. There are lots of new powers in Invasion, and for some of them the iconography is initially a bit opaque (particularly the "players or Invasion-board" icons that are common in the Invasion scenario). I also find the structure cards somewhat hard to read because of the awful font used for the place names (but fortunately they're backed up with maps on the cards). Finally, the increasing number of buildings really suggests the need for a master glossary. Overall, however, Invasion has the usability of Invasion is almost as good as the original. 4/5.

Theming: The central scenario of Invasion, with its invasion of Orléans, has pretty great theming. It really feels like you're preparing for the onslaught. Some of the other theming like the salesman and the carpenter is interesting. Overall, this feels slightly more thematic than the somewhat generic medievalism of the original. 4+/5.

Overall, Orléans: Invasion is a well-produced and beautiful game, with some minor quirks, especially in its usability. Nonetheless, it earns a full "5" out of "5" for Style.

Summary of the Gameplay

Invasion comes with six different scenarios, but the first, the eponymous "Invasion", is clearly meant to be the heart of the expansion.

Invasion (multiplayer co-op). "Invasion" is a co-op game where the object is to prepare the city before the attack of ravening hordes. This is done by sacrificing resources to meet a number of requirements: knights to man the walls; citizens to counsel; cash to fill the treasury; and food stuffs to feed the populace. Each player also a personal objective that he's responsible for. If any of the group goals or any of the personal goals fail, then the group as a whole loses. Furthering the challenge is a new set of event tiles that make things tougher for the players.

These new challenges are supported by new cooperative systems in the form of several new actions. Two of them allow for the contribution of the goods or cash either to the city defenses or to other players. Two others allow players to exchange characters or actions.

Prosperity (multiplayer). This is a relatively minor expansion of the original Orléans game. There's now a carpenter who wanders the board. Players can use boatmen or traders to push him toward specific locations so that they can play structure cards linked to those locations. Once a structure has been played, the player must fill it with appropriate goods and characters to earn victory points. Like many of the expansions, "Prosperity" has a set order of events that occurs every game.

The Duel (2 player). The heart of this two-player game is a collection of four objectives: reach 3 on the development track; establish 3 trading stations; deliver 3 wine to a locale; and deliver 3 fabrics to a locale. The first player who does wins. There are also set events and a new action that lets players sacrifice citizens and characters to generate beneficial actions.

The Dignitary (solo). Deal with a series of set events and collect 7-8 citizens before the end of the game.

Capital Vierzon (solo). Deal with a series of set events and accomplish five objectives: spend 10 coins by turn 9; spend another 25 coins at any time; deliver goods to a locale; build a trading station; and earn 28 points in trading stations, citizens, and development.

Travelling Salesman (solo). Pay coins or food every turn, meanwhile make five preset deliveries over the course of the game.

There are also some new place tiles that can be used to enhance any game of Orléans.

Relationships to Other Game

Invasion! is the first expansion for Orléans.

The Game Design

Invasion. The heart of Invasion is the "Invasion" scenario. Generally, it's tricky to take a competitive game and make it cooperative. I've seen any number of games like Room 25 and Rune Age try and fail. "Invasion" instead excels.

That's in part because the "challenge" part of the game is excellent. It's genuinely hard to accomplish all of the game's goals. They're particularly tricky because you have to give up actions (and in the case of knights, resources) to accomplish them, so you have to decide when to stop leveling up and when to start playing for victory. The personal goals are an excellent addition, and something that keeps everyone involved.

However, it's the "cooperative" part of the game that really moves it toward greatness. The ability to give characters to other players and to let them use your actions dramatically increases the level of interactivity and make it feel like you're all working toward the same goal.

The only minor complaint that I have with "Invasion" is that some of the advancement paths (particularly the high-level goods, but also development) are no longer as important, except perhaps as personal goals.

"Invasion" isn't just a strong new variant of a great euro; it's also a top cooperative game all on its own.

Prosperity. This variant offers just a bit of additional complexity to Orléans, but also a new path to victory via the structure cards. This is to the game's benefit, because the paths to victory were a little staid in the original game. On the downside, the draw of the cards and the movements of the carpenter make "Prosperity" feel more random. I think I'd generally put this variant into my game if I had experienced players and if no one was particularly adverse to a bit of randomness.

The Others. I almost entirely play multiplayer games, so I wasn't able to give the two-player or solo variants an Actual Play. The two-player game looks like a nice change of pace that puts the players in more direct competition and thus probably keeps the game more interesting; while the solo games all look like nice little puzzles.

My rating for Invasion is largely based on the co-op "Invasion" scenario, which is excellent. I've given it a "5" out of "5" for Substance. Buy Invasion for the co-op play and consider the other variants interesting bonuses. (Or, if you don't have anyone to play your Orléans with, consider buying Invasion for three different solo puzzles.)

Conclusion

Orléans: Invasion is centered on a co-op scenario that is an excellent conversion of Orléans' strong eurogame design to cooperative play. It's tense, it's truly cooperative, and it's a lot of fun. On top of that, Invasion also includes several other scenarios that add something for multiplayer, two-player, or solo play.