Stats:
No. of players: 1-4
Amount of time to play: 45-90 min
Age requirements: 10+
Set-up time: 5 min

Why Can’t We Be Friends is a 55 card expansion. It adds more common and faction cards and introduces some deck construction to the game.

Why Can’t We Be Friends Description:

If you are unfamiliar with Imperial Settlers you can read my review and overview here. It should give you an idea of the basic gameplay of the series. The rest of this post will concentrate on the new elements this expansion adds.

Open Production locations are introduced in Why Can’t We Be Friends. They are open for your opponents to use. This takes an action and they gain the resource that location produces from the supply. The owner of the building gets one worker from the supply. Open Production locations may only be used twice each round and only by your opponents.

Another new type of location combines Production and Feature locations. They do not grant you resources when they are built. Instead each round during the Production phase they grant you resources based on the number of Goods stored on them. For example the Stone Depot produces one VP for each stone stored there (up to three).

The last new card type is the Instant card. There is only one, Volcano, and it requires an action to play. It lets you discard it to destroy an enemy’s common location. Or discard it and two Raze tokens to destroy one of their faction locations.

Also included are two faction cards for the solo game, Barbarians and Romans. These faction cards add some variety in how the virtual opponent plays by getting them more attacks or more cards.

Lastly there are rules for constructing faction decks. They are optional but you can use them hone a faction’s strategy using the new cards introduced in this set.

A Quick Review of the Why Can’t We Be Friends Expansion:

Why Can’t We Be Friends adds more cards and just a few new rules to Imperial Settlers. It can be added to your current game fairly casually by just mixing the new cards with in the base set. Or you can construct specific decks to make your favorite faction more efficient or deadly.

The cards for this game are in line with those from the base game. The art is cute, non-threatening and deceptive just like it was before. The rules are a one sheet, quick read and easy to digest.

I like the way this expansion adds more to the game without overloading you with new things. It also lets you add the new elements as you’d like. As I referenced above, you can just throw these cards in with the originals and start a game. But some people will enjoy constructing faction decks and playing them and tweaking them. How you do it is up to you.

The faction cards for the solo game are nice and add a bit of difficulty to solitaire play.

I do wish there was more than one instant card. It is fine but seems out of place. I also wish there was an icon or better way to define cards from this expansion. They are numbered, but icons would be much easier for separating them out.
If you enjoy Imperial Settlers you should pick the Why Can’t We Be Friends expansion up. It adds some fun new elements and for players that love deck building it is a must.

Score and synopsis: (Click here for an explanation of these review categories.)
Strategy 4 out of 6
Luck 5 out of 6
Player Interaction 5 out of 6
Replay Value 4 out of 6
Complexity 4 out of 6
Fun 5 out of 6
Overall 5 out of 6