We played the game with the expansion, and feel the expansion addresses most of the issues. The big changes are you get a generic worker (that works for all cards) and starting bonus resources that speeds up the play. The map tiles have bonuses hidden underneath them. And they added two more mechs (which use map tiles) and you need the bigger box to fit everything in. Lastly, optionally the expansion adds a corrupted mech which runs around the board and can wreck havec in everyone’s play. We had a three player game and it went 90 minutes. Everyone liked the expansion, (Gears of Corruption) and would highly recommend it.

Thank you for the review! I have an off-topic question: I'm really interested in the dice holders you have in the background. Do you know where I can get one? They are so cool!

That little action-selection cube looks like the least satisfying board game component to use ever.