The Grizzled: At Your Orders! Expansion Review

The Grizzled released in 2015 to unrelenting waves of praise. A World War I game about brotherhood and fragility, it pushed the boundaries of an everyday contemporary release. It did more than provide a tense cooperative card game with beautiful art, it made a bold statement.

It's a pretty tight game that feels well oiled. The need for an expansion initially sounds wholly fabricated as if it's trying to solve a problem that doesn't exist. Then you crack this thing open, give it a whirl and sit back with that perplexed look on your face. Then you keep playing.

You see, the base game is an exceptional little package and it doesn't need more. However, in this case more is delightful. We have more fully developed solo rules, a revamped two player mode, and the shiny new mission cards that form the main attraction.

Everything seems to be gently enhanced and boosted here. We get new cardboard standees for each character that are used to add visual punch as well as signify when a player has bowed out of the round. The new solo mode is surprisingly interesting for a game that feeds off silent partnerships and leaning on compatriots in a time of need. The duo mode features a dummy player which is functional and worth trying if you get the itch for coffee in the trenches and only find yourself with a single ally.

The main hook of At Your Orders! are the missions. In the base game the leader rattled off a number of trial cards to deal out and everyone retrieved their entrenching tools and went to work. With this new system you instead draw mission cards from a secondary deck that add flavor and variety to the scenario at hand.

These cards proffer conditions that typically consist of penalties but may sometimes provide benefit. They alter the standard rules to add spice and typically do so in a way that evokes setting. You'll run into tanks, mustard gas, and even forts. These will typically add a starting symbol to the row before any trial cards are even played, or worse they may restrict your options or even make hard knocks more detrimental.

The most severe of the bunch will stick around for multiple rounds, combining their effects with other mission cards until you meet the requirements to discard them. Slipping out of a sequence and only suffering minimal damage is a thing of the past as you need to weigh secondary considerations and respond accordingly.

Now, one of the trademark qualities of The Grizzled is its unruly difficulty. I can see you sitting back in your chair with your head in your hands wondering why the hell CoolMiniOrNot would be so sadistic as to tighten the screws. It's not all torture chambers and missing limbs, as the new mission module does allow you to tailor difficulty to fit your group's experience level.

Mission cards are divided into difficulty levels and you can play with one of the preset modes that provide a mix of easy and more severe effects. This allows you to still experience surprise and drama without all of the gut-shots and shrapnel. Then when your skill grows over time you can kick it into high gear and take on those rolling sheets of steel and choking clouds of toxin. I’m also a huge fan of the new Final Assault/Last Stand card. The current leader can choose to take on one of these two options at any point, signifying the final moment in our narrative. The two options have tactical considerations which feed the excellent story touches and produce a climax that far exceeds that of the base game. One little double sided card really changes up the pace and feel of the experience and this absolutely needs to be utilized if you have it.

"At Your Orders!" is an understated expansion that provides additional options in a very clever and integrated way. It's not mandatory but it's highly desirable. Crusty veterans of the first wave will find themselves drawn to this release with renewed vigor, ready to bear the artillery storm and go over the top.