izigame.me

This up vote isn't really comprehensive review... I'm posting this more so in an effort to clear up some misconceptions about this expansion. ..
But if you want the TLDR on my thoughts on the expansion... In my opinion this expansion is a must own! Of course this expansion doesn't magically fix everything, but it does still improve the game a lot! For me Humankind if genuinely fun again with this expansion, and I've had difficulties stopping myself from binge playing this game!
Now... hear me out...
A lot of the negative reviews about this expansion that criticize the various mechanics, I feel come from a place of misunderstanding and incredulity. Some of the points I've read are simply factually incorrect. Please understand...I AM NOT BLAMING THE REVIEWERS for being confused on how the mechanics work. Humankind still doesn't have good tutorials and onboarding, and that is still a definite con/fault of the game, not the fault of the reviewers. Still, I think is important to clear up some misconceptions about this expansion...
-Leverages, ARE NOT completely RNG based! Leverages pop up on the map when a grievance is triggered by an empire. The leverage drops somewhere in empires territory that has the grievance. Where it drops in the empire's territory is in fact a bit random. HOWEVER, if a player renounces the grievance in the diplomacy tab, Leverage WILL STILL be collected, and the drop will disappear on the map. Leverages collected by renouncing grievances WILL STILL COUNT towards earning the diplomacy era stars.
-further more, spies can use the "Siphon District" ability on other players embassies to farm +1 leverage per turn.
-Envoys are not entirely useless (though I do concede that they could and should have much more abilities) Envoys are the first, cheapest, and only way to pick up leverages early game. (Unless you're playing as a diplomat culture, in which case, every military unit can pick up leverage drops.) Envoys move faster than normal units, can always pass through other players borders regardless, and when in the territory of a foreign city grants bonus Influence to both empires per turn. (10% of the cities influence production to be exact.)
-The real best and most useful feature of the Envoy's is for generating patronage with independent people. When an Envoy is in a territory of an independent people, it generates +1 patronage per turn with the independent people. THIS CAN STACK! For example, having an army of 5 envoys in the territory of an independent people will generate +5 additional patronage per turn.
-Independent people are not entirely useless. There are a few good reasons why you would opt to convert independent people into client states. The biggest reason relevant to the expansion is that client states give a massive boost to your international sway point total. (+50 international sway to be exact.) In fact I think the bonus is a bit over tuned which is a criticism that I have about it. International sway is what's used when voting on laws and international crisis in the congress of humankind. I have had games where I've single handedly defeated the entire world voting against me simply because i've had 3 to 5 client states boosting my IS score.

*Also worth noting, the changes to Independent people came with the free update to base Humankind. It is NOT part of the expansion. So i'm not entirely sure if it's fair to praise or criticize the expansion for it. I still feel it's important to clear up misconceptions about the new independent people. Which is why I bring up this point...
Again let me be absolutely clear... I DO NOT blame the reviewers for being confused about the various mechanics. And I don't think you need to put in dozens of hours into the game first in order to have an opinion on it. First impressions and accessibility are important, and both of those traits are thing that you can definitely criticize Humankind for not doing particularly well... Humankind's in general is not well explained, and will take time, experimentation, and a few guides to learn. Of course I don't think it's necessarily fair to expect that from the player, and if that's a major con for you... then yeah... I think it's fair to not recommend Humankind and the expansion on that basis.
I really just want to clear up misconceptions with this review. If there is one point I really want to argue, its to please at the very least research this game more and consider giving this game another chance. (I'm NOT saying buy it on blind faith, I'm saying look into this game more on the wiki's, youtube let's plays, etc, and then decide if this is right for you or not.)