Excellent game, brilliant art, poor components.The game's core mechanic is similar to deck drafting from collectible card games, where you get a hand of cards, pick one, and then pass your cards to your neighbor. The difference is in 7 Wonders you play the card you choose immediately. This is great because it means the play speed is brisk and the game can play seven people about as fast as it can play three, a trait rarely found in board games.
The game features a tremendous amount of variety because, along with the cards being shuffled and different each game, you can play one of 14 different wonders (7 wonders plus an alternate version of each on the back) that can seriously adjust your strategy and how you try to win the game.
A feeling that comes from the game is the sense of progress and power as you build the city and your wonder using the cards that you choose. Each of the cards represents a building that your constructing in your city. Some demonstrate scientific achievement, military might, or economic opportunity. One cool ability is that some buildings allow you to build other buildings for free, making you feel smart that you built the first building.
This is a great game you'll play a lot, and the cards, while beautiful, are thin and easily damaged. It's wise to get some sleeves to protect them if you don't want it to wear out.
For hard core game players, a 2 hour game is doable. But for the average sit down and enjoy a semi-competitive game, a 2 hour game is a killer. It's rare that you will find a quality strategic game with multiple winning variants that you can finish in under an hour, much less 30 minutes. It's almost too quick. Almost. I would certainly buy an expansion pack if they had one... in fact that is probably the only downside to the game right now... I want some more of IT!
Cons: No expansion pack is available for round 4. ...Just in case we have some board gaming friends that want a little more of a beating. =)
I would rate this in my top 10 list of games for sure. And for games under an hour, this one takes 1st place.
But don't mind me, I am just a pest control guy.
-ThomasPlayed this with a bunch of folks who are really into Race for the Galaxy and Dominion, among many other board games. Scales well up to 7 people. And it's not hard to teach. Those who aren't as much into gaming and strategy can still enjoy themselves while those who are very into strategy are also challenged.
Agree with one review that mentions sleeves might be nice since the cards put into play depends on how many players are in the game which may mean some cards get a lot more wear. Cards don't seem to be of a "standard" size, but Mayday games is making a sleeve that has come out in Dec 2010.
Read Best Reviews of 7 Wonders Game Here
Confession of a board game addict:I can't put 7 Wonders down.
The time estimate of 30 minutes for this game is fairly accurate for a 3 player game, I can easily imagine a 7 player game stretching out to 45 minutes.Either way, that makes it a much easier choice than most of its peers, which average 2 hours and beyond.7 Wonders has an excellent depth of strategy that should satisfy all ages, yet it can be played (once familiar with the rules) at a fairly brisk pace, which creates a good mix of fast paced excitement and deep thought.
With that, let's get into the Pros and Cons:
Pros:
Time Requirement As above, probably the aspect that contributes the most to this game's widespread appeal.
Depth Striking the right balance between military, commerce, science, cultural and resource development is extremely complex and the "right" balance changes constantly as you react to your opponents' plans.
Materials I think the comments about the durability of the cards are overstated.I don't believe they are any more or less durable than a standard deck of playing cards.The wonder boards are very sturdy, and the built in card storage decks are a nice touch as well.Also appreciate the thick stack of scoring pads included.
Innovation the free building rule adds an interesting twist to the strategy that rewards players for focusing on a particular type of development (military, commerce, science, cultural) an option that adds a certain "race to the finish" aspect and prevents the balanced approach from being the only successful one.
Cons:
THE RULE BOOK is very poorly written, as attested to by the ample amount of "oops, we have been playing it wrong" threads that a quick Google search of reveals.Some will no doubt appreciate the very succint rule book, and handy reference sheets but the fact remains that it is very easy to miss key rules of the game because they are hidden in a footnote on an illustration, or not included in the main rules at all, but only on the card description sheet.I had to re-read the rule book (and additional sheets) multiple times before I (think) corrected all the errors we were making.I for one would have appreciated a longer, but more thorough rule book that explains the rules in detail, though I'm sure this was done intentionally as there is a significant market share that finds larger rule books daunting.
Add-ons the Leaders expansion (a separate product) doesn't really add much to the game other than unnecessary complexity in my opinion.On the other hand, the game didn't need an expansion to begin with.
Pick 7 Wonders up without reservation it's a blast.Add on Leaders if you feel like it, but it's hardly necessary to enjoy the game.
This game is great because it combines so many of the good aspects of Euro games but doesn't take forever to play.
Much like the concept of a gateway drug leading to the use of harder substances (which is probably mostly a myth designed to keep our liberty-destroying drug laws on the books), one can hope that this will help ease your friends and family members toward the more hardcore games you love like Agricola or the Catan: Cities and Knights Game Expansion of the classic The Settlers of Catan.
I don't know if it actually works that way, but I have definitely had success with it as an introduction to Euro games for people who had never heard of them before.
It has the whole "should I try for a balanced strategy or go all in on one or two areas" thing, along with the "I can build thing X now, or abandon this chance to build X in favor of accumulating the ability to generate resource Y, and hope that something better than X comes along later" dilemmas...on practically every move...and also the "is it more important for me to do something to gain myself points, or should I worry more in this instance about making sure my opponent can't get this resource" dynamic.
Another great thing about it is that there are 14 different starting positions you can be assigned to work with for that game (7 wonders times 2 sides for each wonder), and, while they don't dictate your strategy, they suggest certain strategies.But the success of your strategy, whatever you pick, is going to depend on what other people do, what resources your opponents are picking, and so on.I see so much potential for planning and playing offensively and defensively and keeping track of what the other players are needing and choosing and doing, that I don't think we will get bored with this for a long, long time.
When you add to that the fact that you can play it in half an hour, it's mind blowing that such a thing is even possible.
I agree with other people that would like to see a fourth age expansion, or maybe an "age 2.5" between the second and final (since I think the guild cards, etc still really need to be at the end) to make it a little longer.But I think if you want it longer you could just play one round, then have everyone pass their wonder one space to the right and play a second game, seeing who does best overall and who does best against the other person who had that wonder last time.
But I digress.
Short version: if you want something that both hardcore gamers can love, and people completely uninitiated to the euro game universe can pick up quickly enough and enjoy as well, this is the game.
Save 33% Off
0 comments:
Post a Comment