Designer: Jarratt Gray (Endeavor, Endeavor: Age of Sail)

Artists: Noah Adelman (Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig, Eclipse: Second Dawn of the Galaxy, Endeavor: Age of Sail, Fireball Island: Curse of Vul-Kar, The Grimm Forest, Gugong, My Little Scythe, Onimaru, The Reckoners, Sweet Mess, Vindication, Wasteland Express Delivery Service), Josh Cappel (1960: The Making of the President, Belfort, Endeavor, Endeavor: Age of Sail, The Manhattan Project: Energy Empire, Pandemic, Scoville, Wasabi!, Wasteland Express Delivery Service)

Publisher: Burnt Island Games (Endeavor: Age of Sail, In the Hall of the Mountain King), Grand Gamers Guild (The Artemis Project, Endangered, Endeavor: Age of Sail)

Genre/Mechanisms: area control, card drafting, set collection

Funding Status: At the time of this posting, Endeavor: Age of Expansion is already fully-funded.  In fact, pledges currently total more than 6x the initial funding goal.

Player Count: 2-5

Solo Mode: no

Complexity: medium-heavy

Risk: medium-low

What It’s About: This expansion to nautical area control game Endeavor: Age of Sail adds in new Buildings, a new Building Market, and new Asset Cards. Burnt Island has also removed recessed player boards from production, and they will no longer be offered with any version of the game.

How It Works: Endeavor: Age of Sail is played over 7 rounds. Each round consists of 6 phases: Construction, Growth, Salary, Action, Discard, and End of Round. In the Construction Phase, each player selects one building from the supply and adds it to their player board. In the Growth Phase, players gain discs equal to their growth level on the Culture Track. In the Salary Phase, players use their discs to activate buildings equal to their current salary level on the Wealth track. During the Action Phase, players take turns placing their discs out on the main board to receive bonuses and vye for area control. In the Discard Phase, players rearrange cards on their player board. In the End of Round Phase, players review their cards, tokens, and buildings, and then the First Player Crown passes clockwise. The new expansion adds in new cards, new buildings, Fortification Tokens, a mini-expansion, and a micro-expansion. The last two are Kickstarter-exclusive.

Comparisons:  Other games with a similar nautical theme include Captain Sonar, Concordia, Goa, Le Havre, Keyflower, Raiders of the North Sea, and Seafall. However, a central mechanic of this engine-builder is the ability to gain the resources located at links between nodes once a player occupies the two nodes on either side. Planning placement to obtain these extra bonuses, while playing strategically to prevent other players from claiming bonus links, plays a pivotal role in player efficiency. A very similar mechanic can be found in the recent Kickstarter offering Neta-Tanka.

What Should I Pledge?:
$27 Endeavor: Age of Expansion: the new expansion.
$66 Endeavor: Age of Sail: a copy of the retail version of the base game.
$93: Base Game + Expansion: a copy of the retail version of the base game plus the new expansion.

Add-Ons:
$12 Wooden Trade Tokens (95), upgraded from the cardboard tokens in the retail version of the game, since the KS edition is no longer being offered.
$12 Plastic Minis (33) & Blockades (9) upgraded from the wooden minis and cardboard Blockade tokens in the retail version of the game, since the KS edition is no longer being offered.
*These 2 Add-Ons will get you as close to the Kickstarter Edition of Endeavor: Age of Sail as is currently possible. You still won’t have the recessed, dual-layer player boards since those are no longer being produced or offered.

KS Exclusives:
The Dominium Micro-Expansion and Seize Your Fate Mini-Expansion, two of the six of the expansion campaign’s “reveals,” will not be included in retail versions. Additionally, backers of the campaign will receive 30 wood Fortification Tokens (upgraded from the retail version’s cardboard tokens) and spot UV finishing on the box. Neither of these items will be included at retail.

All-In Total: In the continental U.S. you’re looking at $93 for the Base Game + Expansion, $12 for the Wooden Trade Tokens, $12 for the Plastic Minis & Blockades, and $17 in shipping, for a grand total of $134.

Endeavor: Age of Expansion completes its Kickstarter on Tuesday, July 2nd and tentatively ships in February 2020.