Over the past several weeks, we’ve been breaking down the new Buildings in the upcoming Endeavor: Age of Expansion. If you missed any of our articles, be sure to go back and catch up. With the Kickstarter less than a week away, we turn our focus to the Asset cards included in the game. As you expand your control throughout the world, these cards are your reward for your efforts. The more presence you have in a region, the better the value of the card you can take. 

The Level 1 cards in each of the regions are Merchant Fleets. They will each give you a boost on one or more tracks, but they have another special ability. One extra card can be attached to a Merchant Fleet, meaning that effectively it takes up one less space on your board. The card you attach is now linked with the Merchant Fleet and if one gets discarded, they both will.

The Level 2 cards in each region introduce Subsidies. As per usual, these cards will allow you to advance up different tracks. They also allow you to make a Payment action immediately for a specific Building type when they are acquired. This gets you back a worker and frees up an action space. It’s a very helpful bonus halfway through a round.

The Level 3 and 4 Asset cards are worths advancements along tracks or straight up points. In either case, it’s a lot of them! It’s hard to turn down an Industry track advancement, TWO Wealth track advancements, and tow points, as is the case with the Level 4 Caribbean Asset card. The Level 3 Far East card offers no advancements, but FOUR points. Suffice to say, you’ll want to invest heavily in some regions to get your hands on some of these higher level cards.

The Level five cards of each deck has unique effects and scoring opportunities. For example, taking the North American Level 5 card allows you to declare independence. You immediately remove all your tokens from cities in Europe, but you gain three fortification tokens. Whenever one of your cities in North America is attacked, you can discard one of those tokens to repel the attack. The Level 5 Africa card gives you the Rosetta Stone. Once per turn when you activate a Building, you can choose any action you want. The level 5 India card gives you the Governor General. It provides an action slot just like a Building. The action is a double Attack, immediately giving you some intimidating force on the high seas. All of the Level 5 Asset cards are unique and powerful in their own way. Depending on your strategy, they can offer some serious assistance for you to achieve your goals.

The Europe deck has been changed up as well. Several of the new cards will force you to change your approach to the game. For example, the Level 2 card is The Great Plague. Every player (including you) must get rid of a worker from their Harbor. You want to be careful when you acquire it to maximize the damage to your opponents. The Level 3 card is the Marriage Alliance. Choose any two players (including yourself) and wed them off. Now, they cannot attack each other’s cities in Europe. Ah love! When the Level 5 card is drawn, a vaccine for Smallpox is discovered. The active play draws one worker from their supply and then in turn order each player may reduce their Wealth by one to draw two workers. A nice boost to your workforce. 

As you play Endeavor: Age of Expansion, it will become clear how much of the feel of the base game has been maintained, but how these new elements will challenge your approach. You are going to have to learn to play differently, discover the strengths of the new Buildings and Asset cards, and prepare to defend yourself like never before. 

The Kickstarter for Endeavor: Age of Expansion launches on June 18. Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter for all of the details.