Cretaceous Skies Took Me a A Bit to Love
After a few shipping snafus in October, we finally got our hands on a review copy of the Cretaceous Rails expansion, Cretaceous Skies. If you’ve read our review of Cretaceous Rails, you know how much we loved the experience, and called it one of our favourite games of 2025. Another expansion is coming for Cretaceous Rails called Cretaceous Seas, which you can check out and still pledge here! I was actually lukewarm on Cretaceous Skies the first few times I played it, but I’ve come to really enjoy what it adds to the game.
It’s not often I think a board game is just fine the way it is, but that is how I felt about Cretaceous Rails. It had just enough going on to make it a fun experience for long-time board game fans, but not too much to feel overwhelming. The first few times I incorporated Cretaceous Skies, it all felt like a bit too much to me. Then it clicked.
Before I go further, I want to make sure it’s abundantly clear. I absolutely LOVE Cretaceous Rails. I get a TON of review games each year, and not all of them can stick around in my collection; this one is going nowhere. I do enjoy Cretaceous Skies, but I am still more than happy to just play the base game. That said, if I have access to the Cretaceous Skies expansion, and have a group that understands the base game, there is one module in here I will use every single time!
There are a number of modules you can add into the game to make it just a bit different. There are variable starting cards that give each player different starting resources / tracks / etc. We’ve used it, some enjoy it, but I feel it’s a good option for those that want it.
There are also end-game scoring egg tiles. Again, it’s not something I need to play with, but it does add an extra element for those that like something to work towards. It does provide a bit of a focus as you aim to complete the conditions.
There is also a 5th executive token that players can use to take extra actions. These need to be built prior to obtaining them, but it does allow an extra action each turn. This is the module I thought I would appreciate the most, but the one we generally don’t use as often as the others. I enjoy the tension of having only 4 actions and so many action locations to go to, and personally felt that the extra action took a bit away from the game, as opposed to adding to it. That said, with other gaming groups I lent my copy of the game too, they had the exact opposite opinion of this add-on, and enjoyed having the extra actions available to them at some point during the game.
The big ad-on here is the inclusion of Pteranodons into the game, and while I might have been lukewarm on the other modules, this is one I’ve come to really enjoy. It does make the game a bit more of a table hog as each player lays out tiles to create an aviary near their player boards, but the option to forgo an action to select a Pteranodon from the board to place in their Aviary, which in turn triggers really cool actions is a lot of fun. The challenge here is that the layout of these aviary tiles is random, and once you’ve placed in the centre of your grid, you have to build out from previously placed dinosaurs. The layout could happen in such a way that the tiles you really want for your strategy – perhaps things that would help with your end-game scoring egg – aren’t easily accessible, or take too much work to get to, to make the action of taking a Pteranodon worth it.
This module is what kept my review from being published until now. Had I reviewed this in November or early December as planned, I would have said this expansion was a hard pass except for the most hardcore Cretaceous Rails players. And while I still think that the base game is enough for anyone, my tune on this module in particular has changed. Despite the chance of having the tiles flop in a way that is not as advantageous as a player may want, I like the strategic element it adds of providing yet another way to get things you want that might have been blocked for you on the central action board.
Over time, I could see us ignoring the other modules included in this box, or perhaps only using one of them per game. But this Pteranodon expansion will be in every game of Cretaceous Rails we play in the future. I wasn’t a believer before, but I’ve come around. Don’t make the same mistake as me – this expansion is worth the investment!
Article By Adam
