Obsession Board Game - Wessex Expansion

Product Information

The game consists of players taking turns to host events at locations on their estate: each event requires a number of Servants to attend, and a number of Gentry to be played from the hand as guests to it. The outcome of an event will be a gain (or loss) of Reputation and/or Money, and/or the acquisition of new Gentry cards. After hosting an event, you may optionally buy one Improvement from the Builder's Market. Obsession is a worker and tile-placement game comprised of four courtship phases. Each phase finds players hosting an activity based on their available staff, hand of gentry cards, and accessible buildings. The goal in hosting these events is to gain favors such as money, reputation, or additional social connections, which build your hand of gentry cards and provide more hosting options. Once a gentry card is used during a round, it is discarded and cannot be used until players take a pass action to refresh their hand. Obsession achieves what it sets out to do—emulate the romance and comedy of errors captured by Jane Austen novels while also providing a quality board game experience. For our household, the thrill of storytelling attached to the gameplay elevates this beyond any of its worker and tile placement brethren. There are not many games that fully feel like a labor of love, but here Dan Hallagan’s attention to period detail has won us over. We’ve fallen under the spell of the namesake; consider us fully obsessed! All this activity is rigidly structured, as each turn consists of the same step-by-step guided principles, all of which are channeled by available resources. While you can focus on different avenues of the family, such as increasing reputation or amassing social connections, the goal is to win the hearts of the Fairchild siblings. Ultimately, they are only interested in one area of your estate each phase.

Period dramas have always been a staple on British television. From Downton Abbey to Bridgerton, we seem to be ‘obsessed’ with the goings-on of affluent, Victorian families. Thankfully, there is a board game that can certainly feed that ‘obsession’ and desire to live out your Victorian fantasy and one that really does impress all that play. I am of course talking about Obsession, a worker placement, hand building game in which you take the role of the head of a respected but very troubled family estate. Obsession aims to allow players to reconnect with influential families, residing in Derbyshire, who after years of misfortune, have finally turned the tide and are set on bettering their fortunes. “Life Is A Game, Where The Player Must Appear Ridiculous” While there are expansions available for Obsession, I am yet to play with these added into the base game but I can safely say that the experience you get with just the base game itself and the amount of content available is certainly enough to keep you going for a good long while. Of course, if you are looking to play with more than 4 players, then you will want to look at getting the Upstairs Downstairs expansion that adds new families into the mix, as well as different service staff to utilise and complete activities. The Wessex expansion, as the name may suggest, adds the Wessex family into the mix, as well as new casual and prestige guests. “Flawless My Dear” Last but not least is the inclusion of three new ways to play the game. This expansion will open the game up for Solo Estate Challenge, Team Cooperative Play and Tableau Obsession.

Throughout the game, a competitive courtship for the hand of the most eligible young gentleman and lady in the county presents specific renovation and reputation objectives. The player who best meets these objectives while accumulating victory points will win the hand of the wealthy love interest and the game. Obsession takes Jane Austen and Emily Bronte seriously, and then goes the extra mile by wrapping the experience in a wonderful set of mechanics. There’s tableau-building as you work hard to build the most glorious estate. There’s hand management as you mull over the best gentry card to add to the current hosted event. There’s worker placement as you struggle to keep your servants available for the needs of the estate and the whirlwind of guests coming and going. Once a gentry card is used during a round, it is discarded and can’t be used again until reclaimed. Obsession The Board Game. To be honest, the name is pretty appealing if you ask me – it’s a game I see myself being obsessed with personally. Maybe that’s what they was aiming for? As a note, this expansion works best in conjunction with the Wessex expansion. The base Obsession game is needed for this expansion as it is not a standalone game.

Rotate service: Move all your Servants one box to the right. (Only those in the "Available Service" box will be available for use on your turn.) Welcome to 18th century Derbyshire, England, where several influential families of neglected estates are anxious to change their fortunes. How, you ask? Well, the Fairchild progeny, Elizabeth, and Charles, have permanently moved into Alderley Hall and seek refuge from the melancholy of the lonely countryside. What better way to improve in both rank and status than by romancing these two respectful, and more importantly eligible, siblings? For example, we prefer to play the game with closed courtship. This means that we do not know what appeals to the Fairchilds until the end of a phase. This requires us to maintain a close race for estate points without knowing which area of appeal will turn up. But the game allows you to play this as an open option, so you’re aware immediately what to work towards, or even a random option in which a die determines when this information appears. Regardless of which camp you’re in, the answer is a resounding maybe. Obsession is a great game and no mistake. It may just be a little troublesome for someone unaccustomed to a modern board game’s disposition. The very first moment I beheld him, my heart was irrevocably goneOver the course of various turns (either 16 turns in a standard game or 20 in an extended game), you must work to host events, ensuring you can service said events effectively with your staff, and attract new guests to your estate, thus increasing your income and your reputation. The game plays over 4 seasons and at the end of each season, you compete for the affection of one of the Fairchilds, who will bring certain reputation and fortune in their wake. THE BUILDERS' MARKET RESERVE: New management of the Builders' Market prevents it from stagnating and increases access to service tiles.

Each turn, players choose a building tile representing a room or outdoor space in and around their 19th century British country house. The tile chosen dictates the event that can be hosted and the guests to be invited. Players must carefully plan, however, to have the proper staff available to service the event and support guests as needed. The reward for success is new investment opportunities, permitting further renovation of the estate (acquisition of more valuable/powerful building tiles), an increase in reputation in the county, an expanding circle of influential acquaintances, and a larger and highly-trained domestic staff. Obsession, then, is a game of carefully planning your various actions, ensuring you have both the staff (meeples) and the ladies and gentlemen (cards) available to carry them out. There’s a very satisfying feeling of ‘getting stuff’ when you carry out an action, because you not only get the bonus from the tile (money, in the afternoon ride example) but also the bonuses from each of the cards you played. Your money goes towards new tiles to add to your board, giving you more worker spaces, and more combo opportunities. It’s a really nice set of systems. I have not the pleasure of understanding you Those of you who revel in multiplayer-solitaire games will love Obsession. The only real competition is in the scrapping over the buildings on offer, and the odd tile that lets you recruit a worker from another player’s board. Other than that, it’s just you against your own brain. To be honest, that’s just as bad for me, my brain is my own worst enemy. That sort of game should be a natural fit for a good solo game, and guess what – it is. I love the fact that some guests are branded as “gossips” and can be used to damage another families reputation but some of them are that unsavoury that you also damage your own reputation for simply being associated with the “gossip”. The grand monuments provide an ongoing reputation bonus, as you would imagine if you had them within your estate. You can build a Lionheart suite within your stately home and invite a prestigious guest to said suite and they are waited on hand and foot by the butler of the house. Their thanks is in the form of double rewards. Everything about Obsession has been meticulously thought out every single detail fits beautifully together like a gracious Victorian puzzle. You then can invite a certain number of guests to the activity and they themselves may have certain staffing requirements that you must be able to fulfil. They will also provide favours (rewards) as well as the activity itself. Favours can vary from money from wealthy Earls, reputation or new guests to add to your hand. All of these will build upon your fortune and better your standing with the opportunity to court the Fairchilds. “My Heart Burns For You, Obsession!”Despite that opening salvo, I’m not a big Austen fan, nor do I have anyone I think I could necessarily tempt into my cult of cardboard with such a game. I had heard, however, that Obsession is a great Euro game in its own right, so my curiosity was piqued good and proper. There’s no denying that the setting is a very clever twist on the standard Euro fare, and it is gorgeous. Each turn, players choose a building tile representing a room or outdoor space in and around their 19th century British country house. The tile chosen dictates the event that can be hosted and the guests to be invited. Players must carefully plan, however, to have the proper staff available to service the event and support guests as needed. The reward for success is new investment opportunities, permitting further renovation of the estate (acquisition of more valuable/powerful building tiles), an increase in reputation in the county, an expanding circle of influential acquaintances, and a larger and highly trained domestic staff. This is the Upstairs, Downstairs expansion for Obsession the board game. This expansion brings a slew of new content to be inserted into the base game to enhance the game experience and offer you plenty of new content to play with. Why not seize the pleasure at once? How often is happiness destroyed by preparation, foolish preparation.” – Jane Austen, Emma Of course, being of landed gentry, the very idea that you’d deign to let them ride without sending a servant to escort them is unthinkable. That means you’ve got to move one of your wooden servants from the Available Service box on your board to the tile, but only if you’ve got the correct type available. There’s no use in trying to send a Lady’s Maid off to the stables, they need a Footman.

At the end of the game, a final courtship phase considers all four phases. The player with the estate that appeals to the Fairchilds most will win the final matchmaking event. This, combined with an accounting of points related to estate improvements and social connections, will decide the ultimate winner regardless of who enticed the final courtship. The Cavendish family is ready to make some improvements. Game Experience: The game invites a world of storytelling as you play. Each gentry card, including the family cards, are delightful as they include in-era photography and flavor detail. A picnic on the south lawn may attract a new guest. But look, it’s the local gossip Miss Beatrice Wilton, who upon future play will lower the reputation of the family. Why did Father wave to her as she passed by on her way to town? The scandal! Lady Cavendish and the Viscount are attended by the family footman. It’s time to bring all resources to bear. Property staff at the ready! Dust off the best rooms. Repair the most attractive elements of the estate. Invite the most prestigious gentry from our remaining social connections. And of course, prepare the children to be marriageable material. The Upstairs, Downstairs expansion brings with it four brand new servants for you: Hall Boy, Cook, Head Housemaid and Useful Man. The cook allows you to invite guests 1 or 2 levels above the reputation score. The Hall Boy gives the butler an outstanding service option. The Head Housemaid has impeccable reputation and helps assure that only the most prominent people get acquainted with the family. The Useful Man is for those well versed in Obsession and is, as the name would suggest, very useful and has some versatility in his play options giving him ways to mitigate Victorian Fate. Let me guess. You found your way here because you’re board-game-curious and heard that Obsession has a Pride and Prejudice / Jane Austen vibe. How am I doing so far? If that’s the case, Chances are you fall into one of two categories:

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Round 11 (Extended Game: 13) is the Builder's Holiday: players may buy any number of Improvement tiles during this round. NEW IN THE 2nd EDITION: Unique to the second edition (indicated by 2.1E topped by a crown in the upper right-hand corner of the box) are two hybrid improvement tiles: The South Lawn and Green Room. Hybrid tiles refer to a room or outdoor space that is multi-purpose; as a result, the tile category changes with the activity, a power that greatly impacts courtship! Along with the new servants on offer, is the facility to add a 5th and 6th player to the game. This requires the Wessex expansion to utilise. There is also a plethora of both casual and prestige guests to invite during the game. There are an entire 49 new guests available to add to the base game. On top of this, there are 5 new service and improvement tiles on offer, milestones, and bigger courtship cards. The new components found in The Upstairs, Downstairs expansion will allow you to mitigate prestige limitations, hunt for tiles, screen your potential guest, refresh the market a lot easier and enhance favours earlier on in the game. Rounds 4, 8, 12 and 16 (Extended Game: 5, 10, 15 and 20)are Courtship rounds. No regular turns are taken: instead, whoever has the highest score for that courtship's current Theme colour (shown by the most recent upturned card at the top of the board) may take either the Charles or Elizabeth Fairchild card into their hand, and draw a Victory Point Card. The final Courtship round is scored on the total for all four Theme colours, rather than just the fourth. (If a colour appears multiple times, it is counted multiple times.)