{"id":1,"date":"2026-05-17T20:50:39","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T20:50:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/meeplemash.com\/?p=1"},"modified":"2026-07-04T21:37:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T21:37:09","slug":"the-lost-expedition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meeplemash.com\/?p=1","title":{"rendered":"The Lost Expedition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Designer: Peer Sylvester<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Artist: Garen Ewing<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Publisher: Osprey Games<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Players: 1-5<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What will you be doing?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You will be playing the part of explorers, following in the footsteps of the real-life explorer Percy Fawcett who disappeared in his quest for an ancient lost city of El Dorado in the Amazonian rainforest. In your quest for the city, you will struggle with limited supplies against the hardships of the forests and its dangerous denizens. You are unlikely to survive&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How does it play?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Lost Expedition is a card game, with an emphasis on hand management and resource management, and a simple but very clever hiking central mechanic. It plays 1-5, with co-operative and head-to-head game modes, though this review is based on the solo mode, the only mode I have played.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Setup is simple. Choose 3 expedition members and palce 3 health tokens on each. Lay out 9 cards to create a trail toward your end goal, and place a meeple on the first card (base camp). You win by progressing along the trail to the last card (El Dorado). Take a small handful of ammo and food tokens, then shuffle the expedition deck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A round is divided into two hiking phases, morning and evening. In the morning, you deal yourself 6 cards. You then need to place cards one at a time, in numeric order. Once you have placed them, work your way the hike, one card at a time, resolving the actions on each card before progressing to the next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some of the actions are mandatory (usually the nasty ones), whereas some are optional. Others force you two choose between two options.  Most of the actions require you spend a resource &#8211; either food, ammo or health. Some actions require a cost in &#8216;skills&#8217; to achieve. Each one of your team members specialises in one skill, so you can sacrifice their health to use it, or additionally you can collect one-time-use skills by completing some cards on the hike. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some actions affect the course of the hike, by enabling you to skip one or more cards, or swap card order. This can be very useful to avoid the worst cards, but timing is everything if you want to avoid accidentally messing up your own plans. Resources are very, very tight in this game so planning ahead is fundamental to success.<br><br>Speaking of success, crucially some actions allow you to progress your meeple along the trail track, though there is often a heavy price to pay. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Once you have reached the end of your morning hike, you lose a food token and switch to evening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The evening hike plays similarly to the morning, except the cards are chosen\/drawn in a specific order, and crucially you get ignore the numbers on the cards when deciding what order to lay them &#8211; instead each card goes either before the first card or after the last card. Then progress the same way through the hike as in the morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You repeat this process until the game ends, which is either when all your expedition members die (the most likely outcome) or you reach El Dorado.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">My thoughts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I love this game. Admittedly I have real soft spot for stories and games set in this time period, especially those that involve exploration and adventure, so I am perhaps pre-disposed to liking it, but even so this game excels in what it sets out to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">First of all the mechanics are compelling. You really feel like you are battling through the jungle. The choices are agonising &#8211; you often find yourself torn between choosing an action to progress along the trail or gaining some much needed resources. Sometimes you deliberate as to whether to play a particularly nasty card to get it over with, or hold off in the hope that there&#8217;s a way of mitigating its effect with a card you might later draw from the deck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And the mechanical effects of the cards really evoke their theme. An anaconda attack might spell death or an opportunity to gain some much needed food. An abandoned camp can provide respite, or a mist impede your progress. The tightness of the resource management similarly evokes the miserable conditions of the expedition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And speaking of theme, the artwork outstanding, and the large sized cards really let that artwork shine. As you lay them out in front of you, you feel like you creating a beautiful comic strip book. Just look at these samples:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Lost Expedition is a game I come back to often. It is quick to set up, mechanically simple, and very challenging, and best of all can take you on a beautifully rendered, evocative adventure in just 20 minutes or so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Highly recommended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What will you be doing? You will be playing the part of explorers, following in the footsteps of the real-life explorer Percy Fawcett who disappeared in his quest for an&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Lost Expedition - Meeple Mash<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/meeplemash.com\/?p=1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Lost Expedition - Meeple Mash\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What will you be doing? You will be playing the part of explorers, following in the footsteps of the real-life explorer Percy Fawcett who disappeared in his quest for an&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/meeplemash.com\/?p=1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Meeple Mash\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-17T20:50:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-07-04T21:37:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Pete\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Pete\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/meeplemash.com\\\/?p=1#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/meeplemash.com\\\/?p=1\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Pete\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/meeplemash.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/e373afab70778ce12f38d3ce761ca982\"},\"headline\":\"The Lost Expedition\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-17T20:50:39+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-07-04T21:37:09+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/meeplemash.com\\\/?p=1\"},\"wordCount\":791,\"commentCount\":0,\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/meeplemash.com\\\/?p=1#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/meeplemash.com\\\/?p=1\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/meeplemash.com\\\/?p=1\",\"name\":\"The Lost Expedition - Meeple Mash\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/meeplemash.com\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-17T20:50:39+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-07-04T21:37:09+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/meeplemash.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/e373afab70778ce12f38d3ce761ca982\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/meeplemash.com\\\/?p=1#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/meeplemash.com\\\/?p=1\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/meeplemash.com\\\/?p=1#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/meeplemash.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Lost Expedition\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/meeplemash.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/meeplemash.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"Meeple Mash\",\"description\":\"Tabletop game reviews\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/meeplemash.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/meeplemash.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/e373afab70778ce12f38d3ce761ca982\",\"name\":\"Pete\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/b559602a9c4d04c3b37fa266b04662beb04260492cc95bc664ea01547036889e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/b559602a9c4d04c3b37fa266b04662beb04260492cc95bc664ea01547036889e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/b559602a9c4d04c3b37fa266b04662beb04260492cc95bc664ea01547036889e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Pete\"},\"description\":\"Hi - I'm Pete, a board game enthusiast. I have played board games all my life and created Meeple Mash to share my enthusiasm and bring you high quality reviews of tabletop board games, miniatures games and card games.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/meeplemash.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/meeplemash.com\\\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Lost Expedition - Meeple Mash","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/meeplemash.com\/?p=1","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Lost Expedition - Meeple Mash","og_description":"What will you be doing? You will be playing the part of explorers, following in the footsteps of the real-life explorer Percy Fawcett who disappeared in his quest for an&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/meeplemash.com\/?p=1","og_site_name":"Meeple Mash","article_published_time":"2026-05-17T20:50:39+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-07-04T21:37:09+00:00","author":"Pete","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Pete","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/meeplemash.com\/?p=1#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/meeplemash.com\/?p=1"},"author":{"name":"Pete","@id":"https:\/\/meeplemash.com\/#\/schema\/person\/e373afab70778ce12f38d3ce761ca982"},"headline":"The Lost Expedition","datePublished":"2026-05-17T20:50:39+00:00","dateModified":"2026-07-04T21:37:09+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/meeplemash.com\/?p=1"},"wordCount":791,"commentCount":0,"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/meeplemash.com\/?p=1#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/meeplemash.com\/?p=1","url":"https:\/\/meeplemash.com\/?p=1","name":"The Lost Expedition - Meeple Mash","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/meeplemash.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2026-05-17T20:50:39+00:00","dateModified":"2026-07-04T21:37:09+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/meeplemash.com\/#\/schema\/person\/e373afab70778ce12f38d3ce761ca982"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/meeplemash.com\/?p=1#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/meeplemash.com\/?p=1"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/meeplemash.com\/?p=1#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/meeplemash.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Lost Expedition"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/meeplemash.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/meeplemash.com\/","name":"Meeple Mash","description":"Tabletop game reviews","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/meeplemash.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/meeplemash.com\/#\/schema\/person\/e373afab70778ce12f38d3ce761ca982","name":"Pete","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b559602a9c4d04c3b37fa266b04662beb04260492cc95bc664ea01547036889e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b559602a9c4d04c3b37fa266b04662beb04260492cc95bc664ea01547036889e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b559602a9c4d04c3b37fa266b04662beb04260492cc95bc664ea01547036889e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Pete"},"description":"Hi - I'm Pete, a board game enthusiast. I have played board games all my life and created Meeple Mash to share my enthusiasm and bring you high quality reviews of tabletop board games, miniatures games and card games.","sameAs":["https:\/\/meeplemash.com"],"url":"https:\/\/meeplemash.com\/?author=1"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meeplemash.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/meeplemash.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/meeplemash.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meeplemash.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meeplemash.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/meeplemash.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25,"href":"https:\/\/meeplemash.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions\/25"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meeplemash.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meeplemash.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meeplemash.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}