The Expanse Boardgame: Doors and Corners

Opening Doors and Corners is almost an affront: the box looks nearly empty, and its single rules sheet makes you wonder whether you have paid for carefully packed air. Then you remember that grown adults with board games are quite capable of judging value by the apparent fullness of an insert. This box is misleading.

At its core, The Expanse remains that COIN-lite game of regional influence with the clever card system: on your turn, several possible cards sit in front of you, and the decision is which opportunity is worth spending now. It is not simply a matter of spreading your presence; you need to see where everyone else will press their influence and avoid spending the game reacting a step late.

Doors and Corners lays its five small options onto that familiar frame without burying it under rules. They do, however, materially widen the routes for building a position and the strategies available, while Protogen no longer carries such an obvious disadvantage. The player interaction gains texture: you are not only asking what you can build, but where you can deny someone else room before their influence becomes a problem.

It should have shipped with the base game, because it does not make the game noticeably harder; it simply makes it much more complete. For fans of area control and area influence, Doors and Corners is the quietly excellent version of The Expanse you ought to have bought yesterday.