Session - 7 Wonders & Troyes

27th of August 2011 (Saturday)

Game(s) Played:
7 Wonders


Troyes



Player(s):
Milo
Mo
Nitsuj
Da Panda (only for Troyes)

Session – 7 Wonders
Da Panda was running late from Klang so Milo, Mo & I started off with a round of 7 Wonders. I suggested we give the “B side” a try but apparently Milo wasn’t paying attention and used the “A side” instead. Maybe that’s the reason why she won… As yet, we haven’t played enough games to determine if the “A side” has a significant advantage over the other.

Milo picked up the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, Mo got the Lighthouse of Alexandria whilst I picked up the Pyramids of Giza. Milo built up a tonne of resources which Mo & I took advantage of albeit for Mo at a much cheaper rate thanks to his Marketplace and East Trading Post (discounts to resource purchases). Nevertheless Milo amassed a whole sum of coin and with her resources, managed to build two Guild cards and all stages of her wonder. She overwhelmed with Military but didn’t touch Technology at all.

This is Milo’s winning tableau…

Mo was building up his resources but I think he noticed Milo’s abundance and switched to the Marketplace & Trading Post. He established some Military dominance toward the end but still couldn’t beat Milo. Technology was the main bulk of his points, I just couldn’t stop him and I realize it’s because we didn’t play the rotation rule right. We kept going clockwise for all three ages and Milo kept feeding him Technology cards.

I think another simple rule of thumb to teach new Players is that a set is always better than multiples… I’ve run the simulation and the converse is only true if you have six multiples (which I believe is impossible) then you should choose the multiple over the set

I went back to my old ways of over-relying on free cost upgrades and not having enough resources that others would pay me for or I could utilize for myself. Hence the three or four times I had to discard even though I wanted to build something. Surprisingly I managed to complete my wonder, although that used up all of my coin. I still managed a decent score from Civilian Structures and at least three multiples of the Writing Technology.

I know I had Military points… Not too sure where the heck they went

Results Of Game
Winna – Milo (56 Points)
2nd – Mo (52 Points)
3rd – Nitsuj (43 Points)

Session – Troyes
This is my second play of Troyes, the first being with Mo in a 2-Player game about a month or so ago. Da Panda had arrived towards the 3rd Age of 7 Wonders & joined in for a 4-Player game of Troyes. To be honest, I must admit that I was very excited to put some plays into one of the most critically acclaimed games of 2010.

Milo & Da Panda were new to the game so I gave them a quick walkthrough, Da Panda seemed to be able to get most of the rules but Milo somehow found it difficult to grasp and was surprisingly a bit lost. Our initial set-up was as follows:

Milo – Neutral (Hugues de Payns – Rewards Influence)
Mo – Green (Henry I – Rewards Event Cards)
Da Panda – Orange (Thibaut II – Rewards Deniers)
Nitsuj – Blue (Le Florentin – Rewards Tradesman on Activity Cards)

Religious Activity Cards: The Priest, Confession, The Procession
Military Activity Cards: Chivalry, The Tax Collector, The Troubadour
Civil Activity Cards: The Miller, The Militia, The Journeyman

Event Cards: Interruption of Work, Migrant Workers, Theological Conflict, Civil War, Drought, Support

Naturally, Da Panda & Milo were very lost on their first turns. Troyes can be very daunting on your first play but I think as long as you are adaptable and maintain a balance between dice control, deniers inflow and influence balance, there should always be opportunities to score VPs.

Our game didn’t see many of the event cards being combated in the beginning, in fact we still had five event cards remaining at game end. I now realize that it’s a fairly good idea to combat event cards if you’re going to be the first or second Player next so that you can save your dice in the next round.

Milo got most of her points from event cards, building the Cathedral (she misinterpreted the rule here and thought you had to have two cubes on each row, one for each half of the table, in order to not be penalized at game end) and used her influence to make one big gain on The Troubadour by using up her influence. Milo didn’t spend a lot of her turns jostling for space on the Bishopric, Count’s Palace or City Hall and actually had only three Tradesmen in them at game end.

Mo who still proclaims that he doesn’t like this game (apparently due to high stress levels and complicatedness) didn’t fare so well in this round. He was very aggressive in fighting for spots at the Count’s Palace, I suspect that he wanted to utilize Chivalry to combat event cards but somehow it didn’t quite work out for him because Da Panda was just as aggro there. He tried to switch to a combo of The Priest & The Journeyman and was one of the first few to pass at round end in order to gain more Deniers for his combo. I think his only grouse was probably that he was the only Player to miss out on one of the rows at the Cathedral, largely due to the Migrant Workers event card.

Da Panda looked like she thoroughly enjoyed her game and actually thought that she had won. She basically covered everything from event cards, building the Cathedral, keeping her influence up, fought for placing in the Count’s Palace & City Hall and churned out big points from The Journeyman & The Troubadour.

I initially had a lot of dice, spending my end turns pushing out the Grey Neutral Player’s Tradesmen but wasn’t as aggressive as Da Panda & Mo for placing at the end. I also used a lot of influence to manipulate my dice initially and was usually the last to pass as I never passed up an opportunity to earn even a single VP (building the Cathedral was brilliant for me because Interruption of Work kept taking the blocks away allowing me to rebuild and earn the VP again). Having said that I think I would not have won had I not spent the last 2 rounds amassing points for secret characters. I pumped my influence, event cards & Tradesmen and it really paid off.

The final picture at game end

I think I know why Mo dislikes this game so much. I think it’s the perceived lack of control over any long term strategy you may have, whereby your good rolls can be “stolen” away from you, requiring you to plan each turn as it comes. I think turn order matters a lot in Troyes, during the turns where you’re the first/second Player, you should make the most of your good rolls although this is offset by the responsibility to combat event cards first. I think it’s the “make the best of what’s available on the board now” mechanic that he somehow can’t stand. I’m not too sure what Milo’s take on the game is but I think she feels Le Havre is a much better game (which she incidentally wanted to play, probably the next gaming session will be Le Havre centric). Thankfully Da Panda had good comments about the game, so it isn’t a total loss. It appears that Troyes may not get as many plays as I had hoped which is a bit of a shame because I think it is a really great game which I thoroughly enjoy for both the mechanics, the Player interaction and overall design. I suppose I can officially put up an advertisement for any gaming group in USJ looking to play Troyes this Raya?

Results Of Game
Winna – Nitsuj(53 Points)
2nd – Da Panda (49 Points)
3rd – Mo(33 Points)
4th – Milo (31 Points)