ForewordJust like the previous Big Box (4), I was hesitant to buy it and yet in the end, I did. Luckily I did not have that decision to make with Big Box 5 as it was given to me on my birthday party! As it's still fresh and many know so little about it still, figure I write this review to include everything about this box in one single thread.
ContentLet's start off with what's probably the most valuable info. What's inside the box?
12x River tilesThese river tiles contains new graphics in the way that they have Sheep and Hills. There are none with cattle, a pig, Inn or any other hint for other expansions. The segments are the same, some has city / cities or road or a combination and one has a cloister.
The watermark is in the shape of three waves. These are large and you could interpret this as River III like me.
And get this: The backside of these river tiles are light, like any other tile you draw! Something I've longed for and hope they continue to print them like this.
24x Traders and BuildersThese seem to be the standard tiles and tokens like any previous released versions. The tokens are a bit larger, as with Big Box 4 compared to the old standalone expansion.
9x Barrels
6x Wheat
5x Cloth (or Flags as I call them)
18x Sheep and HillsAgain, there does not seem to be any difference regarding the tiles and the tokens. One thing that has been fixed is now all tiles has the sheep watermark, which in the standalone expansion had one tile missing this.
Wheel of Fortune and the base gameThis is where things get a bit tricky.
There is one starter tile, with darker backside as usual. But what can get a bit confusing (not having read the rules from this BB5 yet) is what is what with the rest.
There are:
56x base game tiles without any watermarks or Wheel of Fortune numbers
16x base game tiles without any watermarks with a WoF numbers on it
12x Wheel of Fortune tiles with a watermark on it. Some has a WoF number as well.
UPDATE: If only playing the base game this BB5, you will have 72 draw tiles and one starter tile totalling 73 tiles in play.
The rulebook has as usual a tilesheet spread at the end of it. Although it shows every tile so you can sort out what is what, it's still tedious and a cheap way to go. They should have had the base game alone and WoF alone, i.e. extra tiles. It seems like every Big Box is cutting corners and the amount of content is becoming less and less.
Sure, we have 2 more player colours, but something like that should be a bonus content. The price for this box in Sweden is more costly than buying each part of this bundle separately.
Comparing with Big Box 3, which cost half as much as the content itself bought separately, it's becoming clear that these boxes are more for collector's need because I can't see any new player invest in such a grand box without starting small.
The rest of the content1x Wheel of Fortune 'tile' which is 4x4 in tilesize as the old standalone expansion. This one has a new look, no text which has been replaced with images. Good or bad, it's all up to the eye of the beholder. The pink pig that walks this tile is also present, like the old standalone version.
8x 50 / 100 marker tiles to keep track of the larger scoring.
These comes in eight different colours:
8x big follower
8x builder (also known as Bob the Builder)
8x shepherd
8x pigs
64x standard follower
The colours are:
and the new colours of pink and purple.
ConclusionSo is this worth buying?
If already owning a lot already, this may not seem like a good deal. If it wasn't for the River III tiles, I'd say this was definately not worth buying. But there's also the Wheel of Fortune to consider. Because so many out there missed their chance getting this expansion (which I keep referring WoF to but it's not!), Big Box 5 is a must and thus making this BB5 an awesome find.
Pros- New river tiles
- Sought after for many, the Wheel of Fortune
- 7th and 8th colour set
Cons- The price is way too high compared to its content
- Exclusive and out of print material in a big box with half the content already own rendered useless to many. The Big Box should contain regular reprints of the common sets for new players, instead of forcing collectors to buy unnecessary releases.
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UPDATE: Normally this would not be an issue, but because the Sheep and Hills cloth bag was already introduced in the its own expansion box, it should also have been included in BB5. Instead, all the tokens are faced down and shuffled. Drawn when one places a tile (and chooses to do this action).
And lastly a quick peek on the rulebook. Nothing fancy here. Standard each part of the game sets explained on their own. Found one errata on the spreadsheet where it says there's 2x of one of the Trader's tile, but in fact there is, and always has been, one of each tile (24 unique ones).
Hope you enjoyed reading this and take what is written here with a grain of salt.
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