Euphoria: Ignorance Is Bliss Expansion

Euphoria is one of my favorite worker placement games. I can happily recommend this expansion as a way to add to the game in a meaningful way an not just over-encumber the game with more things. The core of the expansion is the new Trade Row which takes the place of the draw the top artifact giving options for spending commodities to get the artifact you want or block someone else from getting the artifact for their power. The new recruits and markets have been designed specifically to work with this new mechanic meaning if you play with the trade row you replace the core set's recruits and markets with the new ones, shaking up the game in more ways than one. This also includes factionless recruits which are very strong but don't benefit from the star at the end of a faction track and a couple new rules which can easily be incorporated into the core game. The first of these is a minority faction bonus. Everyone who starts with a face-up faction which is represented by the least number of players gets a free commodity. This helps as a catch up mechanic since they will be working with the least number of people towards a faction goal. This does not apply if you have a factionless recruit. The second rule makes it so that when you use two or more workers on the same turn (doubles, triples, etc), you must spend a morale lowering your hand size per die past the first. This cannot be used if you are at the minimum morale track marker. All in all, this adds a lot to keep the game fresh, reduce the runaway benefit of multiple doubles, allow for strategic artifact choices, lower randomness, and creates a few extra options to push to victory. This is a great expansion by a great design team, great job!

Another great addition to one of our favorite Stonemaier games!