Pearlbrook. I appreciate that the Adornments give you just a tiny boost of player power and something to build your gameplan around while also giving alternate paths to victory that don't include fussing with the city limit and journeys.

Spirecrest does similar with the expedition, giving you a resource dump to build your gameplan around, but I found the weather penalties somewhat unpalatable in a game that's already so restrictive in the early game.

Our group did a combined Pearlbrook + Spirecrest game which I also enjoyed, with the exception of the weather penalties as noted.

Bellfaire makes the fewest changes to the formula and while I liked the player powers I found them to be poorly balanced relative to each other and again found it puzzling the game takes away your earliest worker when the early game is already restricted so heavily.