by dyeyk2000
I've given this a lot of chances. 3-4 times? I've played it with 2 and with 4 players. And I've just come to the conclusion that the expansion just makes the game unbearably long.The base game as it is, already has an "it has overstayed its welcome vibe" by around the second to the last round. Thankfully, it's usually not long before the game finishes by then. The mechanics of the expansion not only extends the game clock (more event cards), by around 2-3 more rounds, but it also extends the length of EVERY SINGLE ROUND by giving you 1 more (very powerful) wild purple die. Also, to a lesser extent, having the ramparts around the board gives players a reason to split up their dice and not group them in 3's, thus taking you a longer time to use up your dice. Taking everythng into account, the game snowballs into a much more longer game.
The expansion for me has just turned Troyes from a charming medium weight euro with variable setup/game play, into a repetitive SLOG. Gosh. The games just takes way too long now and the rinse-repeat feel of just going through the same things over and over to get points is highlighted.
The next time I play this, I'll start fiddling and house-ruling certain parts of the expansion. I'll be sure to take out the ramparts every time now. The purple dice, I might keep for now. I'll also start randomly taking out an equal number of yellow and white events (and a corresponding number of reds). I'm thnking I wanna keep the game shorter -- for instance I might use a Number of Players x 2 = Number of Rounds in the Game rule of thumb moving forward. That way, everybody gets to be first player at exactly twice.
In summary, I REALLY used to like Troyes before, but the expansion has made it borderline unplayable for me. I'm really disappointed in the expansion.
Thanks everyone for taking the time to read through my rant.