The biggest board gaming news for me in 2025 was the breaking news that Kavango has an expansion coming, I was thrilled. Then to attend UKGE 2025 and be offered a copy to preview was truly unbelievable. I feel incredibly grateful and privileged to have received a copy from Matt and Zara to try and give feedback on, because Kavango is a brilliant game that so many now love. So here’s my thoughts and feelings about what is coming in Kavango’s expansion.
The Lodges Expansion.
Ecotourism lodges have been added into the game to add a puzzling dimension to the game and an added layer of depth in creating your nature reserve. Placement is now everything where previously you could freely lay your animals around your nature reserve and it didn’t really matter.
The Kavango expansion is aiming to add the human story within conservation and how people can live alongside the natural environment. From what I have learned on these eco lodges, they are a type of accommodation purposely designed to minimise the impact on the natural environment, but offer people who stay in them a chance to immerse themselves in nature. The priority of a lodge is sustainability through assorted practices including renewable energy, recycling and support in a local community through tourism and thus revenue generated. This type of activity fully aligns with what message I feel Kavango is trying to portray and further builds on the understanding and activities happening within the region. Has Mazaza been successful?
The added expansion rules.
Set up Kavango as you normally would but further add in the new components including the community protection markers (in line with your player colour), prep the lodge cards (3 decks of 15 based on the levels 1, 2 or 3) and then deal 3 lodge cards from each of the prepared decks to each player. So players will have 9 cards in all. Players then select 2 lodges from each level to which they can play on the board and start to plan lodge placement. Community protection markers are then placed in a set way.
Lodges have a complexity level and show the four animals required to construct it. Lodges are located on the intersection between 4 animals. When you have these animals in place a lodge piece is played between these 4 animals. It is the gains from these lodges and being clever in placement that are worth it. Depending on complexity level results in how many $’s collected. $1m for level 1, up to $3 for level 3. The big (and most critical) swing is the 8 victory points on offer for each built lodge. That’s a potential 48 more points up for grabs picked up in the final count.
There is the opportunity to discard a lodge card for money, again equal to the level. No victory points though for discards, but if you need that money… This option is completed at the investment stage of a turn.
The Community protection markers are locked on the board and animals cannot be placed on them. A 4th protection method for consideration above the climate, poaching and habitat protection. Players have to spend money during the investment phase to remove these markers. This is necessary to open up your nature reserve for more animals. However, you could also sell spaces off again for money, but you will permanently lose this space if you sell it.
Animal placement. Due to the complexities now required in animal placement, animals can be freely moved around, except if they have been required to build a lodge. They stay with the lodge.
Mazaza has also just tidied up a few existing rules in the game which are excellent. The sanctuary rules have evolved to accommodate for the changes in the nature reserve.
Initial notes
This is without doubt a harder game than the base version of Kavango on its own. There was plenty to consider before to ensure you had the right balance of animals in your reserve, completing research and completing your conservation awards. You now have your highly valuable lodges to try and include, which could fully enhance your nature reserve and flood your score with points, but could also create a huge imbalance if you are not careful and your reserve very much falls apart. It is now a tougher challenge.
What’s incredible is the challenge still remains on how you go about achieving your goals. It is near impossible to do everything you want to do or secure every animal you want, complete all research you want to do. The turns are just not there. You don’t have more turns with the expansion, all base game rules stand, you just have more to try and achieve and as the designers pointed out, it is more of a puzzle now. They are not wrong!
The lodges are also just an absolute beauty of an addition. That 8 VP per lodge is an enormous dangling carrot. These have the potential to make huge swings in the game, truly enormous, but also at what cost. Cost being, what are you not focusing on?
The lodges are truly clever as well. Having completed a little back reading on what an eco lodge is, it is clear to me now to understand what the set is trying to achieve. These lodges will be set up where tourists can see the beautiful animals of the area (the animals required on the lodge card to be able to set it up), generating the income and the reward in your VP’sfor completing eco goals. Obviously our tier 3 lodges require a higher level of animal, generating more income on the site where your tourists are expecting to see these beautiful creatures. Then the lodge is set up, locked in place on the game board surrounded by the animals that brought this lodge and interest in the first place. The message is sustainable tourism so that all people may enjoy the beauty that nature offers and how people and the natural world can live together in a balanced way, instead of humans destroying such environments. I’m in awe of how it has been added into the game.
Stretched finances
There’s never enough money, right? You are so limited to money in Kavango for achieving your goals and this expansion does little to alleviate that. Throw in the community protection costs and it really is tough. You want to be spending the money on habitat protection or climate change because the conservation awards are so appealing. Spending the money just to open up your reserve, didn’t sit well with me. Not because of being a poor rule, it is quite genius in having to open up your land and get around the red tape. The spend just doesn’t feel productive because it is something for the longer term, but you need those animal slots to fill up the nature reserve. It’s such a clever addition that truly reflects the real state of affairs we as a society face. Then playing this through again you can just see the real issues coming through more. You cannot just be allowed to sprawl, not without cost and consequence. You pay for the privilege to expand and then there is a responsibility to take care of your purchase. It is community protection.
I don’t feel you can get too hung up on what your opponents are trying to do. The moment you focus on someone else is likely to be to the detriment of your own game. Your focus needs to be on your own goals and where you can have most success. So when you have to sell off a lodge card because you are desperate for some finances or sell land in your nature reserve it really feels like a shot to the stomach, as you are sacrificing potential VP’s. There’s every chance this is a short term pain for the greater good and a necessary step, but it feels rough. Particularly if that focus is on climate change, or you want to increase your poaching protection to bring in the larger animals to your reserve to protect. These come with increased costs and it truly is what you want to focus on in your game.
With the Kavango base game having that focus on research, as well as habitat protection, poaching and climate protection. The creating team has expanded on real life challenges around income through tourism as well as protecting the natural world. All very real world challenges occurring right now. It’s so impressively well done and following on with the message they originally set out to portray.
Amended Climate protection.
My goodness did this sting me in the first game with the expansion. One of the amended rules, you must get $5m spend across levels 1-3 to be allowed to claim the reward. Plus no more in the 3+ section. This needs a lot more attention to gain the 10 victory points at the end. If you miss purchasing the $5m in sections 1-3 you are out of it and it is crushing but a truly excellent variation.
The climate challenge needs a steadier level of support. You cannot throw lots of money at it at the end and just assume all will be ok. People may not appreciate this added challenge from the original rules but it is well developed and implemented. The reality of climate change in the real world is it needs constant, regular action and thus constant regular funding. The Mazaza team has introduced better rules here for sure.
Rule clarity and seamless integration
The rules have been explained so clearly within the expansion and what is impressive is how seamlessly they integrate into the base game. For me, they took so much learning from the base game, improved that through their kickstarter and delivered an excellent product. With the expansion here they have hit the ground running and I really cannot fault what is coming soon for us all, it’s exciting and really well made fitting seamlessly into the base game content.
Final Thought
All Kavango players should be so excited for this expansion set and what is coming for us all. I’m so impressed with what has been created, the message it sends, and as a gamer, how seamlessly it works with the original content and increases that challenge within the set. Bring on the Gamefound crowdfunding campaign!
