Hansa Teutonica: Britannia

When I play this games I like it for about 90% of the session, then the endgame scoring always leaves a bad taste in my mouth. There are some interesting concepts for sure: connecting routes to unlock more abilities, blocking opponents etc. Just wish the end game scoring was more focused, instead of dithering out into yet another point salad. Point salad games are stupid

Essen 2014

Great map with more strategic options than the base map. The new rules are confusing to learn, but smooths out once you start playing.

This certainly adds something to the game. I like the addition of permissions for Wales and Scotland, the area majority, the clever use of the Isle of Man, the use of boat spaces, the extra importance of Cardiff, Carlisle and London for permissions, the more spread out positioning of the towns that give extra powers and the two permanent bonus spaces near Calais. The whole thing seems a fair bit more involved and with extra choices without pushing t so far that the flavour or playability is lost.

And Hansa is a great game. My only beef with it is that maybe it can sometimes seem slightly dry. I'm not a fan of dry games, BUT Hnsa seems to combine a lot of what is good in dry Euros and make it less fiddly and smoother. So the game doesn't rise to a 9 or 10 for me as it doesn't quite have that X Factor of fun....but boy does it scratch a particular itch very well.

Awesome expansion for an awesome game!

Still has all of the good flavor of HT, but...the Wales + Scotland stuff make it fiddly, where it never was before. It's nice to have new things to root for, but I'd rather play the original than this.

More balanced map without something really groundbreaking!