The South Tigris Trilogy is the first trilogy from Garphill Games that I followed since the inception, buying each game as it was released.  While each of the games are great on their own, I think the journey of following the announcements, designer diaries, and the games being delivered to my doorstep over the stretch of two years, left me even more enamored with the trilogy.  So, when the bundle of expansions hit Kickstarter, I knew I’d be pledging money on day one.  Now that the games have finally arrived, I want to highlight what each brings to the table.  In this second installment, I’ll be taking a look at Body of Books, the expansion for Scholars of the South Tigris.  My YouTube video on the same expansion can be found here.

If you missed out on my look at Tides of Trade, the expansion for Wayfarers of the South Tigris, view the text review here or the YouTube video here. 

Body of Books introduces Black Dice, a brand-new color to the cadre of dice players use in Scholars of the South Tigris.  These dice are going to still be used to power actions on the players’ Action Cards, but their properties are going to be slightly different from the base game’s dice.  First, when interacting with other dice, the Black Dice are going to take precedence over all other colors, effectively turning all other dice to black.  On the other hand, Black Dice will still interact with Workers in the same manner so a player can turn a Black Dice to another color utilizing that color Worker.  Black Dice will also be counted as “colored” dice for the Dice Sum scoring at the end of the game.  Lastly, using a Black Die on any action is going to grant a specific bonus for that player, depending on the action chosen.  A lot of these bonuses come in the form of other new mechanics in the game, so I’ll detail them individually at the end of the review.

The addition to Upgraded Action Cards is low-key, my favorite part of Body of Books.  Players of the base game will know that they start with two Action Cards that have an action printed in a brown banner across the top of the card.  When used for an action, players can activate that supplemental action (such as gaining Coins or a Gold) but when they take their Rest action, there is usually a penalty of having to add a White Die to their bags.

In Body of Books, players can gain Upgraded Action Cards, which are similar to those from the base game, but do not penalize you for using them.  Instead, they are just swapped out with the matching Action Card from your starting hand.  These Upgraded Action Cards are placed in an open market at the beginning of the game so a player can’t upgrade every single one of their cards and are also competing with other players to grab the cards they want.  I really like this because it can let players add some extra umph to actions they are focusing on while not adding any sort of new mechanic players have to learn or get used to.

Personally, the act of Retiring Translators in the base game feels like something I just luck into.  This is probably more of a player thing, rather than a game design flaw, but if one of my Translators retires, awesome, I’ll take some extra Victory Points or bonuses, but it’s not something I actively seek out.  Because of this, the ability to chain together more actions on a single turn using my Retired Translators is rarely utilized and seems to be a missed opportunity.  Thankfully, Page Cards hit the scene to help me, and players like me, get into the action.

A new sideboard ships with Body of Books that is placed to the right of the main board.  On this board there are spaces for six Page Cards.  Each of these cards will display one of two bottom banners, a Red Banner or a Gold Banner.  The Red Banner cards are going to act just like Retired Translators, being tucked under a specific Action Slot (displayed on the card with the Action’s Icon), modifying how the player takes that Action.  There’s a wide variety of different modifiers, ranging from getting to place an Influence in one of the Guilds in the House of Wisdom, to changing all White Dice to Colored Dice during the Action, to gaining Gold if a certain value is used on the space.  Alternatively, the Gold Banner Page Cards can be placed under any Action Slot.  Instead of modifying the specific Action, it will give the player something to trigger at the very end of the game.  An example is being able to move certain Research Markers up their tracks after all play is completed, possibly securing extra Victory Points or other bonuses.

With the advent of Page Cards, players are going to see a lot more cards getting tucked under their Player Board.  Originally, there was quite a steep cost to continue to tuck cards under Actions that had already been modified but the designers realized this and stepped in to change how this part of the game works in Body of Books.  Players will place the Row Reference Tile and Row Bonus Tile under their Player Boards during setup.  Essentially these tiles are going to do things.  First, the Row Reference Tile is going to display the new cost to tuck cards with the big change being that once a full row is tucked, the next row is going to be free.  In this way, you’re only ever paying extra if you’re stacking cards on the same Action, but if you’re focusing on tucking a card on every Action Slot before repeating, the costs are going to be minimal, if anything.  Secondly, the Row Bonus Tile is going to remind you that once a row is completed, players now get to secure a bonus as well as some extra Victory Points.

All of these additions work really well together and create a nice positive feedback loop of purchasing Page Cards, tucking them under Action Slots, and completing rows.  It truly opens up a whole new dimension of Scholars that the base game, at least for me, only hinted at.

A new resource has been added to Scholars through Body of Books: the XP (or Experience) Tokens.  These tokens are “star shaped,” mirroring the icon that is on the Neutral Marker used during the Delivery Action, and are typically used to purchase more Page Cards, but might have other uses throughout the game.

Black Recruit Action: If using a Black Die during the Recruit Action, players are able to increase their action’s total value by three.  During setup, each player is given a starting Page Card which is tucked under the Recruit Action Slot and enables this Black Die bonus.

Black Delivery Action: If using a Black Die to move around the Deliver Action Map, the player will be rewarded with one XP Token if they land on, or pass, the Neutral Marker.

Black Research Action: So, you might be asking yourself, “how is the use of a Black Die going to change the Research Action when there are no black tracks?”  There used to be no black tracks, but that aforementioned sideboard not only stores Page Cards, but is also outfitted with a brand-new Black Research Track: Medicine!

If using a Black Die for this action, a player gets to move up the new track, using the same rules that are in place for the base game’s tracks.  The new Medicine Track leans heavily into giving players a chance to broaden their pool of Black Dice, gain Upgraded Action Cards, or purchase Page Cards.  So, if any of those new additions sound promising to you, make sure you’re focused on this track to get the most out of these new mechanics.

Black Translate Action: If the only way to get Page Cards would be to wait to Harvest the Medicine Track during a Rest phase, then I think a lot of people would feel that part of the expansion sounded great on paper but failed in execution.  Thankfully, using a Black Die on a Translate Action let’s a player forego Translating any scroll from the House of Wisdom, and go straight to purchasing Page Cards.  Now, outside of an XP cost, a player does have to drop some Gold onto any one Translator, but even this plays right into the expansion’s strengths of getting more cards tucked under your board so you can start chaining together these sweet actions.

Body of Books finds a really intriguing way of taking a mechanic (retiring Translators) that existed in the base game and pushing it to the forefront.  With this expansion, players are going to find their turns consisting of more and more actions chained together, producing some really satisfying turns.  On the negative side of things, if Scholars of the South Tigris already felt too complicated for some, Body of Books isn’t doing anything to make the game lighter for those players.

Ratings are based on 5 main criteria: rulebook, setup, components, art & graphic design, and gameplay.  The first 4 criteria are rated 1 to 5 and the gameplay is rated 1 to 10.  These scores culminate in an “overall satisfaction” score that is rated from 1 to 10.  If the reviewed game has both a solo and multiplayer mode, I have assigned scores separately to give context to which mode we enjoy more.