Orleans: The Plague

• Designer: Reiner Stockhausen
• Publisher: dlp / Capstone
• Players: 2-5
• Age: 12+
• Time: ~90 minutes
• Review copy provided by Capstone Games

Mon Dieu, quelle horreur! The inhabitants of Orléans have been hit hard as the plague has come upon them, bringing suffering and misery to the population. There are many dead to mourn, and even the plague doctor can bring only limited relief and hope to the long-suffering inhabitants. The clergy also has little to offer in the way of relief. And so, in the end, everyone is on their own and must try to protect their followers as best they can…

If you are unfamiliar with Orleans, I would truly recommend that you play the base game on its own before you go looking to add expansions to it… Here is our review of the base game from about ten years ago: https://opinionatedgamers.com/2014/12/10/dan-blum-review-of-orleans/

If you use this expansion, you will replace the Beneficial Deeds board and the Hour Glass tiles with the new expansion versions. You will also use 3 Plague cards each game (out of a deck of 15 possible cards).  

The Plague cards add new conditions to the game. Some of the cards have an effect only at the beginning of the game (just after setup) while other Plague cards have ongoing effects that last throughout the game. When you use The Plague expansion, the game conditions are made tougher from the start of play thanks to the “rat cards”. Sometimes there are fewer monks in the game, sometimes no gears may be placed on place cards or the building of trading stations must be paid for with an additional coin.

New events are now also linked to the “corpse tokens” which players must place a certain number of in their bag at the end of each round. These tokens might be randomly drawn from the bag at the beginning of the round and occupy valuable space on the marketplace because they cannot be used for any action. You do have a few ways to manage these pesky tokens… After events are resolved, you can choose to throw all the Corpse tokens in your Market back into your bag.  Additionally, before drawing tiles, you have the opportunity to reduce your Corpse tokens in your market down to exactly 5 (returning them to your bag). 

While your Market might get clogged up with these Corpse tokens – each player has a “plague doctor”, a new figure that is available in (almost) every round and can be used universally.  This is essentially a wild action, it can be considered any Follower type.  This will hopefully counter some of the reduced ability that comes as a result of the corpse tokens in your bag.

To get rid of the Corpse tokens for good, a player can fulfill indulgence cards through pilgrimage, donations, or other conditions, which also bring victory points at game’s end. You start the game with 2 Indulgence cards, and you can gain more by taking the Infirmary action.  The catch with these Indulgence cards is that you must reveal them as you are completing the action shown on them – you cannot have already achieved the feat, then later show the card.  They must happen at the same time.  Whenever you are able to show an Indulgence card, you take all of the Corpse tokens on your Market and place them back in the supply.

At the end of the game, there are two changes to scoring.  First, you score points for any completed Indulgence cards (they score anywhere between 2 and 8 points each) and you also subtract 1 point for each Corpse token in your Market and in your bag at the end of the game.

Overall, the additions here universally make the game harder.  Starting with the three Plague cards – new conditions are placed on the game to ratchet up the pain.  Perhaps you lose 4 of your trading stations or half of the Technology tiles are removed from the board setup.  Maybe you get hit with the ongoing penalties, such as having to pay a coin penalty if you have a corpse on your Market or nerfing all the money bonuses on the Development track.

Then, once the game is in motion, the Corpse tokens are a constant pain to deal with – taking away useful spaces in  your Market and limiting your choices overall.  Sure, you get the wild Witch Doctor each round, but I find that this one wild play does not nearly even out the reduction in options that usually come from the Corpse tokens.

This pain level makes the Indulgence cards all the more important when playing with this expansion as they are the only way to permanently remove Corpse tokens from your bag.  This represents a triple whammy of sorts: 1) better drawing from your bag with fewer Corpse tokens, 2) VPs from the Indulgence card, 3) lesser penalty due to fewer Corpse tokens.  Obtaining and completing Indulgence cards is really what to do.

Is this an expansion for you?  Well, I guess it depends on whether you feel like you need more struggle or variety in your Orleans games.  To be honest, ten year old games don’t often make it back to the table (well, unless there’s a new expansion) – so I’m often just fine reacquainting myself with the basic game as it’s likely been years between plays.  I find that I have enough issues getting my stuff together in vanilla Orleans, and I don’t need things any harder than that!  That is surely due in part to a lack of regular play of the game, and I suspect that folks who play Orleans a lot will like the challenges and variety that this expansion will provide.

One last note – apparently the cardboard is a different thickness than some of the older versions of the game – and some gamers have mentioned that the Corpse tokens are a different thickness, and different enough to be determined by feel.  I have all Capstone versions, so it won’t be an issue here – but I think it’s something worth noting.

Until your next appointment,

The Gaming Doctor