A War of Whispers had a Kickstarter in 2018 which funded, but with only 639 backers. At the time, the Kickstarter price for the standard edition was $49, while the price for the deluxe edition was $69. It seems that today the suggested retail price for the standard edition is still $50, while the deluxe edition went up to $99. However, I was able to grab a copy of the deluxe edition for the suggested retail price of the standard. Which leads to the question of whether buying a deluxe edition of a board game is worth it.

The answer to that is, "it depends". It turns out that for this particular game, the deluxe edition is a) not very luxurious, but b) a whole lot more playable than the standard edition. A War of Whispers is an area control game, in which players don't control the 5 empires at war, but 4 shadowy secret societies that have bet on the outcome of the war. As each player can possibly control several different empires during his turn, being able to quickly see what is going on everywhere on the map is rather essential. But in the standard edition the cities, towers, and farms are just printed on the board, and that sometimes in not very visible colors; the deluxe edition has the cities, towers, and forts as plastic miniatures, which are massively more visible across the table. While the level of detail on the miniatures isn't great, looking at images of both standard and deluxe version one can clearly see the deluxe version having a much improved table presence, and better playability through that better visibility.

On the other end of the scale are products like the 3D version of Settlers of Catan. The 3D terrain isn't really adding anything to the game, in my opinion. The product isn't even available anymore, probably because very few people wanted to spend $300 for a $60 board game. A very common thing these days on crowdfunding options is the standard version having cardboard standees, while the deluxe version has plastic miniatures. That is probably important to those people who can and like to paint miniatures. But as I can't, I'm frequently better off with a color cardboard standee than with a grey miniature, in terms of table presence and visibility.

Chip Theory Games makes games in which chips the size of poker chips are frequently used, thus the name of the company. Now authentic casino poker chips are compression molded from clay, and weight about 10 grams. Many chips in games from Chip Theory Games are likewise heavy 10 gram chips (not sure how they are manufactured, might be plastic filled with metal), but standard versions of some games come with health chips that are just 4 gram plastic chips, and the deluxe upgrade is getting those as heavy 10 gram chips. Visibly there is hardly a difference, especially when viewed from a distance, but it is surprising how much of a tactile difference this upgrade makes. I also don't regret having bought plastic chips to replace cardboard chips for my copy of the board game Agemonia, even if those are just the light plastic version. And I also bought some generic metal coins for use in some games that otherwise use cardboard coins, because it just feels nicer. I backed the deluxe version of FLOE, because it contains storage solutions from Game Trayz, making the game a lot easier to set up and store.

The A War of Whispers deluxe edition also contains additional cards, bringing the deck size per empire up from 8 to 12. That is a pretty significant change to gameplay. It is another reason why I would consider the deluxe edition of the game to be the "standard", while the standard edition is just a subpar version of the game. Gameplay expansions are best sold as expansions, and not as part of a "deluxe" upgrade to a game. Fortunately more and more crowdfunding projects come with not just a choice between standard and deluxe versions, but with a wide selection of individual component upgrades, for example replacing the cardboard game board with a neoprene mat. Which is an upgrade about which I have mixed feelings: For some games a neoprene mat is a great upgrade, especially since it prevents game components gliding over the board when somebody bumps the table, and makes cards on the board easier to pick up. But I have had neoprene mats that were delivered folded instead of rolled up, and I ended up never using them, as it is extremely difficult to get the crease out.

All this to say that one has to be aware that some games exist in different versions, or with optional deluxified components. With some general experience with such components one figures out which ones are actually useful for playing the game, and which ones just increase the price for no added value.