The Voyages of Marco Polo’s first expansion returns to Venice with two new modes and a fifth player

It’s taken two years for the first expansion to The Voyages of Marco Polo to arrive, but it looks like the wait has been worth it.

The Agents of Venice is two add-ons rolled into one, introducing a new Venice city board, as well as companions with special abilities.

The box also adds enough bits to the main game to support an extra fifth player.

The first module is City of Venice, which adds the Venice board and an action space for building trading posts that grant bonuses to posts across the whole map – with the first post needing to be constructed on the Venice board.

The second is Companions, a roster of nine characters with a variety of helpful talents, from modifying dice to making travel cheaper. Each companion only lasts a single round, meaning they’re best deployed selectively.

Each module can be added in separately, or played together with the core game.

The Agents of Venice is due out in early 2018, and has a price tag of $40 (£30).