Review: Smash Up: Oops, You Did It Again (AEG)

Illustration ideas: Shield Maiden, High Noon, Honorable Combat, Priest of Anubis

First came the Dragons, Mythic Greeks, Superheroes, and Sharks of It’s Your Fault! — Alderac Entertainment Group’s (AEG) first fan-voted expansion for its award-winning Smash Up card game. They filled our game tables with shock, awe, and wonder. We loved it.

Now, AEG did it again. Or, more accurately, we did it again.

Oops, You Did It Again takes its spot as the second fan-voted expansion in the Smash Up universe. The voting was close, but four factions finally earned their spots in the game box: Ancient Egyptians, Cowboys, Samurai, and Vikings.

Let’s look at the top five things you need to know about these new factions and what they bring to the clever, chaotic, and genre-bending realm of Smash Up.

Darn Pillaging Vikings!

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Each faction brings distinct strengths to the table, but the Vikings earned a solid “oh come on, not again” from both of us.

Vikings bring their pillaging ways to Smash Up through card text that gives them several ways to “forcibly borrow” (aka steal) cards from other players.

Sometimes it’s random, like the Shield Maiden’s ability to flip the top card of your desk and swipe it if it’s an action or a minion with power 3 or less. Other times, it’s very deliberate, such as when a Raiding Party lands on your opponent’s deck and lets you choose among three cards flipped from the top.

Either way, these abilities make the Vikings a powerful force in the game

Buried But Not Dead (Yet)

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Nobody loves burying things quite as much as the Egyptians did. The Egyptians carry that love forward through the new “bury” mechanic.

Several Egyptian actions and minions let you bury cards at locations, plus any player can bury cards at the Pyramids location. Burying a card means putting it face-down at the location. It’s not in play yet, but any card that affects “cards” at a location works on a buried one, too.

Although you can look at a stack of buried cards they control at any time, but they can only do it one card at a time, plus they must keep the stack in the same order as it was.

Dueling for Dominance

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Everybody knows the classic moment in a Western film when two somber cowboys meet under the sun at high noon, ready to draw and shoot. The Cowboys in Smash Up live for such action through the new duel mechanic.

Several minions, actions, and even a location let cards begin a duel. Duels are little face-offs between a pair of minions. After a duel is declared, both players can play an action card, starting with the player who started the duel. The card that allowed the duel specifies what happens to the minions who won or lost.

Earning Honorable Victories

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Samurai fight their opponents with a strict sense of honor and sacrifice, which creates some unique opportunities for scoring extra victory points in the game. Given how close the scoring is in many games, chances to earn even one or two extra points could hand you the win.

Many of Samurai can also duel opposing minions, just like the Cowboys. The biggest difference is that the Samurai typically duel for extra victory points or the chance to play an extra card, while the Cowboys just want to send their opponents straight into that Great Discard Pile on Boot Hill.

Watch Those Turn Phases

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Thanks to the new burying mechanic, paying attention to the precise phases of a turn is more important than ever.

Uncovering a buried card happens first, as you start your turn. Don’t get so excited about putting a minion into play that you skip uncovering a card you need to mak your plans work. (Not that it ever happened during our test games, goodness knows.)

The Verdict

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Each of the four factions add a lot to the greater Smash Up experience, plus, like the other expansions, they work as a fun straight-from-the-box game for two players.

At first we worried that some of these factions might overpower older ones, but several test plays with different faction combinations put those fears to rest.

Pick up the Oops, You Did It Again expansion to enhance your play with plenty of new mechanics and strategies. (Plus those darned Vikings. Hey — stop stealing stuff from me! Really!!)

BIO

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John Kaufeld often frets about whether the word “meeple” has a proper plural form. This rarely worries Isaac Kaufeld at all. Recently, the two of them threatened to launch a father and son podcast about gaming, movies, and family life called “And Maybe a Lemon.” Who knows what might happen next?