Note: Sean J. is a part of the Burnt Island Team and is able to bring a sneak preview of the upcoming Endeavor: Age of Expansion Kickstarter. We’ll be sharing a number of articles in the coming weeks examining this project. Art in these images is not final.

When you’ve been at sea for weeks, months, even years, tensions are bound to run high. The new worlds that are being discovered are quickly being claimed, and the potential for battle increases. Are you going to be able to hold on to your far flung cities? Will you be able to steal some locations from rival nations? With Expansion comes conflict. It is wise to be prepared.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been looking at the Buildings from Endeavor: Age of Expansion. As the June 18 Kickstarter approaches, we’ll discuss all of the new Buildings and the new Asset cards included in the expansion. Today, we’ve reached Level 4, and two of these three options increase the potential for war on the high seas. As always, we’ll explore the benefits that each Building provides, and how they can be used effectively in your game.

Tower

As you’d expect, the Level 4 Buildings are quite powerful. The Tower is a no brainer to acquire, especially if you’re planning on an aggressive strategy. When you take the Tower, it moves you up one step on the Influence track, which is nice, but where it really shines is in its action space. The Tower allows you to make an Attack and Fortify one of your Cities on the board in one fell swoop. Over the course of one turn, you can stake a claim on an opponent’s City, and then Fortify it, making it tougher to pry away. The Tower can be quite strong, especially to players that have a steady supply of population coming in. Get your hands on it if you can, and be wary of any opponent who gets there first.

Military Academy

The Military Academy is the second Building in the game to feature the Conscription and Mobilization action. It doesn’t provide a bonus when you gain it, but its benefits pay off each turn. During the Population Growth phase, you’ll Conscript an extra worker to the Military Academy. At some point during the round, you can Mobilize that worker to perform an Attack (that worker will act as the required casualty). The flexibility of choosing when to add an Attack to your normal actions can be really helpful. It keeps opponents guessing when and where you might launch your assault. 

Town Square

The Town Square is the one Level 4 Building that doesn’t have an Attack action on it, but that doesn’t make it any less useful. When acquired, it will move you up one space on the Wealth track, allowing you to grow your population at a faster rate. Its two-pronged action, lets you pay a worker and take a Draw action. Of course the Draw is helpful, especially late in the game, but being able to pay a worker, freeing up an action space halfway through a round is really great too. 

As you can see, Jarratt Gray and the rest of the development team did not make the choices of Buildings easy for you. Each one is powerful in its own way, and you’ll have to find out how to best use them to your advantage. One thing is for sure, once players start reaching the Level 4 Buildings, the potential for conflict greatly increases. 

Stay tuned as we continue our look at the Buildings and Asset cards from Endeavor: Age of Expansion. Be sure to check out our previous articles if you missed any. 

Read about the Level 1 Buildings here.

Read about the Level 2 Buildings here.

Read about the Level 3 Buildings here.