Original games that suck, but are better with an expansion

So I have a friend writing a scene who asked just that question. The characters in the scene say something to the effect, "this game sucked and then they came out with the expansion and that made all the difference".

In emailing friends, we can't seem to find a game we think falls into this description. My google-fu turned up something on BBG that suggested a few that I sort of agree with, Machi Koro and Puerto Rico, I'm still wondering if there is a BAD game made good with an expansion.

Of course, one person's bad game is another favorite

Most of the time, bad games don't actually get an expansion, but there are a few games that I'll only play *with* the expansions because they fix so many problems with the original game. Twilight Imperium III is one of those: in the original game, there's a card that gives you 2 VPs when you take it. So the first player always takes it. Then the second player takes the Initiative card so they can take it the next time. It has a clock effect, but some players will get it more than once, giving them an advantage. The expansions replace that card (the Imperial card), and the game is much, much better without it. It's possibly not an actively *bad* game, but it's indifferent without the expansion IMO.

Kingburg is also a bit like that: the random "push your luck" battle mechanic is replaced with a limited supply of battle cards. It's a game I don't like in the original form and find almost acceptable with the expansion, although I'm really not a fan of the game in any incarnation.

Ticket to Ride is a good game in any incarnation, but I much prefer playing with the 1910 ticket set to the (unbalanced) original ticket set - in the original, if you get the long routes across the board, you have a massive advantage over players with only short (north-south) routes.

Cheers!

I've heard it being said about 'Elder Sign' aka 'Cthulhu Yahtzee', and the 'Gates of Arkham' expansion, which apparently actually manages to turn it into a kind of 'Arkham Horror Lite'.

Jhaelen said:

I've heard it being said about 'Elder Sign' aka 'Cthulhu Yahtzee', and the 'Gates of Arkham' expansion, which apparently actually manages to turn it into a kind of 'Arkham Horror Lite'.

Click to expand...

I think that's more along the lines of "Mediocre Games Made Better". It had to have been decent enough since it had I think 2 previous expansions before Gates of Arkham!

But to be honest, I can't think of any games that suck that are made good by an expansion. Cause as said above, if it sucked, usually it doesn't get an expansion. Why waste time expanding a crappy game?