Do You Need The Witcher Old World Expansions to Enjoy the Base Game?

I’ve produced a few videos around The Witcher: Old World as well as a couple articles here on the website. A comment I often get is, “You can’t really enjoy this game without the expansions, there isn’t enough content.” So after half a dozen games I’ve decided to revisit those comments and see if I agree or not.

Spoiler alert – I do not. Everyone plays board games differently, and sure, if you purchase The Witcher: Old World and played it a dozen times in the span of two weeks, you might wish for more content. As someone who owns hundreds of board games, unless I’m reviewing (which would be 3-4 playthroughs in a 2 week span) I’m not playing a game to death. I think for the average board game enthusiast who is likely to purchase The Witcher, this probably also holds true.

Sure, more monster cards and more event cards would be really great. I actually wish the base version had just a bit more, because if one thing has become repetitive it’s the monsters in the 2-Tier and 3-Tier decks. Of course I would love a few more characters as well, specifically Ciri, as that would provide a bit more variety.

The thing here, though, is that all of these things provide a bit more variety, but it’s not like the base game doesn’t (outside the monster tiers I mentioned). But this is true of almost any game you play. It would be nice if the base version of Dominion had a few more cards. It would be nice if 7 Wonders had a few extra wonders in the box. Does not having them break the game? Definitely not. Would it be nice? Sure!

If the opportunity to look at more The Witcher: Old World content comes up in the future, of course we will do it and perhaps I will change my tune on whether or not they are needed. But for now, based on what I own, the experience is excellent and one I highly recommend, even without add-ons!