Sprawlopolis is a delicately-balanced game in just 18 cards, so naturally they had to release a bunch of expansions to ruin that. I don't love all of them, but it's nice to have the variety. Combining them all into a 32-card metropolis somehow maintains the balance (meaning I still narrowly lose on average), but unusually for me, I prefer to play with the basic cards most of the time. Being small and fast is sort of the point.
Wrecktar **
The first one I tried out, because silly. Its devastation is relative to how early or late it emerges from the deck, but having the fire-breathing colossus rampaging through your commercial districts is generally less trouble than it should be.
Points of Interest **
Mildly handy as half of an extra starting card and potential bonuses at the end, but in practice it tends to get buried and forgotten about.
Construction Zones ***
Describing itself as an "irritation" wasn't the best first impression, but they aren't too hard to deal with, and it's a nice dynamic element to bring you back to the theme if you've started seeing abstract colours and lines.
Beaches ****
Hard edges that punish and reward in the customary delicate balance while also just looking nice, this is easily my favourite of the expansions. They could have taken it further and made some kind of Seafarers of Sprawlopolis.
Mainly designed to make the turn-taking puzzle a more viable two-player activity, the solo mode of taking turns on alternating sides also makes for an interesting change-up, though I don't use it very often, preferring not to hasten the inevitable mental breakdown.
48 Alternate Sprawlopolis Scoring Conditions (Fan Variant) *****
The permutations may be vast, but the 18 standard scoring conditions get familiar before long. BoardGameGeek user parchmentEngineer devised additional tasks, including putting the Points of Interest to use. Handy, clever and free, what's not to like?
