Hi everybody,

this is my first participation to this forum and I want to ask your opinions about using expansions' decks as "stand-alone" theme decks.

I really love this game, but the setup is pretty long and I don't like to play with too much cards (or renounce to some of them), so I was thinking to use the adventure decks of expansions like The Reaper or Blood Moon without the base cards (and every Spell card available from all base game and expansions).

In addition, I like the idea to play a "thematic campaign" with the Adventure Cards from a single expansion, who tipically as a strong theme (Reaper is gothic, Blood Moon is "halloween-style", Frostmarch carry you into an ice land, etc.), but now the question is: the Adventure Cards from a single expansion are enough for a balanced game? What's the weaknesses you can see about this idea?

p.s: I was thinking to blend even the Adventure Cards from a little box espansion with a big box expansion, like 90 cards from The Reaper + 10 cards from The Dungeon, because their themes are very close to each other, like Frostmarch and the Highlands... what do you think about?

If you mix any expansion deck with the basic Adventure deck, you won't have any problems of balance. Firelands can be tough, but if you're ready for a hard game it's not bad. It's a nice challenge.

I'm pretty sure about this, since I've tried these combinations by myself. Normally I play with the basic Adventure cards + 1 or 2 expansions at a time.

Using only the Adventure cards from certain expansions might not always work, though. For example, the Firelands have only Ifrit Enemies and most of the cads are designed to increase the difficulty in a diluted Adventure deck. I think you can barely survive in a game with only Firelands.

Sacred Pool has few Enemies, and most of them are quite tough. It has almost no way to gain the gold required for the Livery Stables (you may play with the Highland for that). Frostmarch may be more balanced, but on the safer side (few dangerous foes). Frostmarch has few interesting Objects and Followers, if compared to other expansions, and you may feel out of powerful stuff.

Reaper should work ok even alone. Its content is very close to the base game.

I have tried this, and I found it does not work so well. You need to at least mix them with the base game or else you won't have enough ways to gain Strength and Craft.

Really thanks for your precious contribution.

Mix the base and a single or two expansions are a great idea and I'm sure the game is designed for this (at least, they are "expansions" ) but it takes a lot of time to split the Adventure Cards after every game!

So, in my laziness, I had few ideas: divide the 104 Base ACards into every expansion, but now I have a lots of and that means less then 20 Base ACards per expansion... OR mix couple of expansions (like The Reaper and Blood Moon, same theme).

Can you help me building balanced theme decks?

I also keep my expansion cards separate. (I keep content in their original boxes.)

Remember that you probably will not draw more than 100 cards per game, especially if you use corners or less players.

So shuffling a giant, giant deck seems unnecessary, usually.

I think this is an easy way to get what you want.

First, see the number of cards in the set. (Base 104, Reaper 90, Frostmarch 84, etc. Says on box.)

Then, pick expansions you want to use. (e.g. Base, Reaper). Always use base!

Then, get the total number of cards. (e.g. Base + Reaper = 104 + 90 = 194).

Then, get the fraction of each. (e.g. Base = 104/190 = 55%, Reaper = 45%).

Shuffle each deck and just get the cards you need out of 100. (e.g. get 55 base cards and 45 Reaper cards).

This lets you pick whichever expansions you want to use, but you get the "right" number of cards from each, without shuffling a giant deck. It's not a perfect method (a true random shuffling wouldn't get *exactly* 55%) but it's pretty good.

Trying to go on long your road, I analyzed a couple of little box expansions (my favourite ones):

_The Reaper

28 Enemies (-1)

25 Obj (-7)

12 Followers (-1)

6 Strangers (-2)

7 Places (-2)

12 Events (-1)

Where +1/-1 is a comparison with the Base ACards (so The Reaper has 1 less Enemy and 2 less Strangers, for example).

The Base deck has 72 Strength Trophy Points and 37 Craft Trophy Points, where The Reaper has 73/51.

The Reaper seems a perfect stand alone to me, what do you think about?

_Blood Moon

36 Enemies (+7)

21 Obj (-11)

12 Followers (-1)

12 Strangers (+4)

12 Places (+3)

18 Events (+5)

Trophy Points 57/63

I tried Blood Moon as stand-alone but it was a fail, because of too much Event Cards and few Stength Trophy Points. So i rewrote the rules i didn't like (max 1 active Lunar Event; when you draw a Lunar Event immediately draw another AdvCard) but there are still too few Strength TP for 100+ cards.

Fow now, I'm still analyzing and pondering. Every idea and help (especially with a chart of Frostmarch or Sacred Pool, who I don't have at home at the moment) are well accepted