2024 has been a great year for tabletop games. As we appoach 2025 everyone is looking for great gift ideas. For tabletop gamers, the best answer is often an expansion to their favorite game.
Expansions can give players new options to use in the game like more cards or new units that change strategies to win. They can offer new modes of play that use the same pieces in intriguing ways. They can also include game aids that can speed play and make game night flow more smoothly.
I have covered each of the games that have expansions on this list this year. If reading my article convinced you to pick up one of these games I am honored and grateful for your trust in my opinon. If you’ve never tried any of these games, there’s no time like the present.
Arcs: The Blighted Reach
Arcs was my favorite board game experience of 2024. It was maddening, fascinating and packed a massive amount of game into a very short time. I truly felt like the leader of an epic space empire for a couple of hours, complete with all the joys and drama such a title implies.
The best science fiction epics sprawl out over multiple entries. The Blighted Reach brings that expeience to Arcs by playing three games in a short legacy campaign where each game has an influence on a later game. A player might start the campaign as a high powered general trying to protect their empire and, by the final game, might end up as a wild-eyed heretic looking to rip a hole in space trying to take out the universe.
Heroscape Gift Ideas
I was very excited to see the return of Heroscape this year. It is a great entry level miniatures game that people new to the hobby can pick up easily. It mashes up genres to allow fun clashes between things like killer cyborgs and dragons and also lets players build a collection of customizable terain they can use with almost any other minis game should they get deeper into the hobby.
The latest wave of figures expand the options further with some massive boss figures and more winged membes of the Kyrie Warriors Army. There’s also a box full of new terrain hexes to make any battlefield that much larger. The battle continues this spring with more figures released as the Rising Tide expansion.
Thunder Road Vendetta: Carnival of Chaos
While Arcs might have been my favorite game released this year, Thunder Road: Vendetta remains a popular one to play with friends and family. This Max Max style road race never fails to elicit gasps of wonder and growls of friendly frustration when the dice come up in an unexpected way. Furiosa would be proud.
Carnival of Chaos turns the infinite road race of the original into a Mario Kart meets demolition derby style game of arena combat. It also adds another set of basic cars to the game to expand either version into a five player game for those missing the expansion that adds a big rig and a motorcycle swarm as an option. I still love the original game to pieces but I love that Carnival of Chaos adds another options of vehicular violence to my game library.
Car Wars Gift Ideas
One of the longest running car battling games recently came out with a new edition. Car Wars Sixth Edition focuses on a single car per player rather that a rolling gang of motor vehicle misfits. That focus allows each playe to trick out their ride with the right guns, gadgets and gear for their play style.
Steve Jackson Games recently put out six new decks of cards that can be used to customize cars ready to roll into the autoduel arena. The cards are a mix of old and new options with serious guns mixed in with silly gadgets like a grilled cheese warmer. The world of Car Wars has always had a sly sense of humor, as exemplified by the tagline of the game: “Drive Offensively”.
Pathfinder Second Edition Remastered Spell Cards
Pathfinder Second Edition Remastered offers excellent character customization options everytime a player advances a level. But as the players battle their wat through dungeons & dragons, keeping track of that information can get a little hectic. It doesn’t help when players use abilities that, even though they’ve used them in dozens of situations, they have to look up every time.
Paizo offers four sets of spell cards, one for each source of magic, that can help take the burden off spellcasting characters of remembering the specific details of their spells. Each spell fits on one card that can help players remember effect during encounters as well as what options they have to prepare at camp. This is a great choice as a gift for a player who loves their Pathfinder spellcaster.
The expansions presented in the article as gift ideas can be purchased directly from the publisher, through online vendors such as Amazon or ordered via your Friendly Local Game Store.
