Review - 7 Wonders

9th of August 2011 (Tuesday)

Game(s) Played:
7 Wonders



Review – 7 Wonders
This Game Is… …:
7 Wonders is a game that needs no introduction to BGGs (Board Game Geeks) having gained massive popularity at the holy grail of all gaming events – Essen in 2010. 7 Wonders is a card game riding hard on the coat-tails of what I would call the “Age of Cardgames” whereby a slew of boardgames (i.e. Dominion, Thunderstone etc.) have been released where there is no “board” per se, instead using purely cards in a tableau.

The objective of 7 Wonders is to have the most VPs at the end of the game. The game is playable between 2 – 7 Players at an average play time of 45 minutes, approximately 15 minutes longer if your people are prone to AP.

What Do You Get In The Box?
As mentioned before, 7 Wonders is a card game and comes with 3 decks of cards each for the 3 different ages that take place during the course of the game. Unimaginatively, they’re called Age I, Age II & Age III.

I must mention the scoring booklet and its immense usefulness to quickly calculate end game scores (there are a total of 7 ways to earn points). Kudos to the creators / publishers for including this little gem in the game.

An already well used scorebook

There is also currency in 7 Wonders which is needed to purchase raw materials from other players. The economy of 7 Wonders is rather simple therefore the “coins” only come in denominations of 1 coin and 3 coin.

There are also markers called “Conflict Tokens” which basically indicate how triumphant you were in the inter-Player battles that only takes place at the end of each Age. Although it doesn’t seem to be a big deal in that you only battle against the Player sitting to your left & right and if you do lose, you just get a -1 Conflict Token (basically -1 VP at game end). So even if you lose all your battles, you only get a -6 VP disadvantage. More skirmishes than battles really.

Sorry, my photographer only took a picture of 1 coin and the -1 Conflict Tokens... I’m sure you can find nice pics on BGG

Lo and behold, you get a Player board! Don’t get me wrong, my collection seems to indicate that I have a thing for boardgames that are card games... (Dominion, RFTG, Bohnanza, Chronicle, Glory To Rome, Citadels, Bang and now 7 Wonders) but man do I love a good Player board! They each represent one of the 7 Wonders of the World that you are supposed to be building which are gloriously depicted and intricately drawn. Thumbs up for making the game more your money’s worth.

How Is It Played?
In 7 Wonders, each Player receives a starting hand of 7 cards, a Wonder that needs to be built (which conveys bonuses) and 3 coins. Each turn, all Players take a look at their cards, pick the best one that suits their strategy then either build the building (on the card) / discard the card (and collect 3 coins) / use the card to build 1 stage of their Wonder.

Once everyone has performed the above, they pass their entire hand of cards to the next Player and the cycle goes on until there are no cards left. Age I ends, insults and injuries are traded in the ensuing cries of war, then each Player is dealt 7 cards from the Age II deck and the new Age begins! Play till Age III and tally scores at end game. Salt (or in this case AP) to taste.

What I Think About The Game?
Gameplay:
If I were to put 7 Wonders in comparison with other card games, it has got two things going for it...

Its like playing ModNation Racers with cardsss... ...

Simultaneous Player turns – Seriously, there’s nothing that kills AP more than 2 – 6 other Players staring at you, having already taken their turn wondering why the heck is it so difficult to pick a single card from a diminishing hand. RFTG employs simultaneous turns as well which certainly speeds things along nicely.

You can’t macro manage this

Macro managing – 7 Wonders takes macro management to a whole new level. You still feel like you’re building a civilization with Civic Buildings, Technology Centres, Military Buildings, Resource Workshops & Commercial Hubs but you don’t have to worry about fiddly things like upkeep, corruption, happiness and taxes... the typical killjoys of civilization building. You simply look at your hand, choose a building, see if you have the resources to build it (or if its free because you built the pre-requisite building – another cool model) and if not, see if you neighbours generate such a resource and pay 2 coins for each one you buy from them. You never need worry about any Player beyond the one to your left and right and if you get a crappy hand, you can still earn coins from discarding or building up your Wonder for other great benefits.

However, no game is without its flaws. 7 Wonders’ speed can make people miss stuff, especially if you resolve each turn simultaneously. We’ve had situations where a Player mistakes the Trading Post’s ability to include Cloth, Papyrus & Glass and the Player receiving the coins doesn’t take a second glance and the game goes on. A certain degree of trust has to be developed among the Players (which is a whole other topic altogether) if you want to maintain the level of speed in this game.

I suppose once everyone can achieve that level of consistent speed, 7 Wonders is pretty much like speed demon civilization building lite.

Quality:
As I mentioned earlier, the art c’est vrairment magnifique although unless you own the game you may never end up having time to appreciate it seeing as how fast the game moves along.

I noticed that they’ve changed the coins from the previous editions’ wooden circle tokens (silver coloured for 1 coin and gold coloured for 3 coins). I find the current ones nicer although Da Panda asked why they’re so oddly shaped.

Having said that, I do have a standard complaint about the card sizes which are just non-standard for no good reason at all. Some people argue that having bigger cards = more glorious art. Hogwash. I would like to protect the non-contested glorious art but I can’t find sleeves that are the proper size for it. Particularly so when people tend to slide cards across the table when passing hands to the next Player (ouch ouch ouch) and the fact that you’ll probably be playing this two rounds in a row at the very least due to its short playing time.

I have also heard about how the Player boards do warp after an unspecified amount of time. As my copy is brand new, I have to wait and see to determine the degree of truth in this claim. It would be a crying shame if this were true though as I absolutely adore the Player boards.

Affordability:
The game retails at around RM180 if you can find it, it is still notoriously difficult to obtain a copy despite being released to the world in October 2010 which is nearly a year ago now.

Price ÷ Recommended No. of Players ÷ [Game Length (hour) x No. Times Game is Played in a year]

I think I will only play this with a minimum of 3 Players. Even last night we played 2 games in a row which took us 2 hours in total for our first two plays and three new Players. That would make my formula to be:

RM180 ÷ 3 Players ÷ [1 hour x 26 times a year] = RM2.30 / hour per Player

Can you buy this at RM2.30?

I’m not sure if I can even get nasi lemak for RM2.30 anymore. Maybe a plain nasi lemak I guess. Considering the gorgeousness of the art and the great game you can own, I would put 7 Wonders as one of the most affordable 7 Player games you could own.

Is This Game For You?
To be honest, I feel this game is for everybody. It is simple enough to understand (if you teach the resources and technology scoring bits very well) that new Players can pick it up immediately and has no Player elimination (unlike most 7 Player games). Even if you don’t regularly have 7 Players, the game is still extremely enjoyable with 4 Players or more.

There are those out there who are afraid that the hype has built up 7 Wonders into epic proportions that the game simply cannot live up to. The problem with the hype is the fact that the game is pretty much sold out everywhere, then I suppose you must ask yourself, why is it sold out everywhere? Go figure.