There’s all the time a hazard in messing with one thing that’s significantly well-loved. 7 Wonders has been a staple game at many gaming tables since its launch in 2010, and for excellent motive. Designed by Antoine Bauza, with beautiful illustrations by Miguel Coimbra, that unique game hit all the appropriate marks, with advanced and various alternatives for technique and card improvement, great replayability, and the interesting theme of controlling and constructing one of many nice civilizations of the traditional world.
Thankfully, reasonably than try to rework an already wonderful expertise, the brand new version of seven Wonders maintains the whole lot that already labored, and easily presents a extra enticing and playable expertise that’s simpler to study for brand new gamers. It’s a win all-around, and a straightforward advice for any gaming group. But what has modified? And is it value a purchase order in case you already personal the unique?
What Has Stayed The Same?
7 Wonders is a card-drafting and useful resource administration game about competing historical civilizations. Each participant strives to assemble victory factors for a wide range of ventures, together with build up a tradition of science, establishing navy would possibly, or discovering success as a buying and selling superpower. And, after all, there’s the game’s title; you possibly can step by step construct up your civilization’s Wonder, from the Pyramids of Giza to the Colossus of Rhodes.
Conceptually, the game (in each its editions) hits an exquisite candy spot between accessibility and strategic depth, with mechanics which might be simple to study, and a playtime of beneath an hour as soon as the fundamentals. As such, I’ve typically discovered 7 Wonders acts as a uniting game that invitations a broad array of gamers with differing ranges of expertise to the desk.
While card drafting has had a wide range of incarnations, 7 Wonders’ unique launch actually helped to additional popularize the idea, which sees a lot broader use right this moment in a wide range of board games. In transient, 7 Wonders calls for that gamers cross particular person fingers of playing cards across the desk, with every participant pulling one card earlier than passing your entire hand on, after which receiving one other hand of playing cards with which you do the identical. In this fashion, the assets and choices introduced in any given hand get unfold across the desk, and there’s all the time an intriguing selection between what you want, and denying your neighbor what they’re chasing.
My favourite factor about 7 Wonders is how every playthrough inevitably feels so dramatically completely different from the final. That’s due to some very astute steadiness work on the a part of the designer, but in addition due to the number of profitable methods. The technique you play in a given spherical can not often be static or repeated verbatim. A profitable strategy one spherical might merely not meet the wants of a subsequent spherical, so that you’re compelled to assume in your toes.
That’s since you’re all the time competing together with your direct neighbors on the left and proper of the desk, because of the way in which buying and selling and warfare is dealt with. While there’s one winner throughout your entire desk, you’re commonly interacting together with your direct neighbor, so it behooves you to pay shut consideration to their machinations, and reply accordingly. Thematically, I like the way in which this idea echoes the character of battle in these societies from 1000’s of years in the past; everyone seems to be compelled to cope with their neighbor, however anyone society may need a dearth of understanding or direct interplay with a nation a lot farther away.
Across three ages of play, every participant step by step builds out a civilization centered on completely different applied sciences and capabilities. And simply when issues actually begin buzzing, the game accelerates to a last cycle of playing cards across the desk, and it’s time to depend up your rating. On a couple of event, gamers I’ve loved the game with are able to dive instantly again in to attempt once more, regardless of how their historical society fared within the last standings.
What Has Changed?
The re-creation of seven Wonders isn’t a dramatic overhaul of methods or mechanics. Rather, consider it extra as a type of definitive version of the core game, which tweaks steadiness and improves presentation in as some ways as it might, however with out shedding nearly any of the unique game’s essence or move.
Gorgeous new cowl artwork echoes the long-lasting look of the unique illustration, however with a grander scope and central point of interest on the Colossus statue. Open the field, and the fixation on improved manufacturing values can be obvious. A cleaner, brighter rulebook is less complicated to parse, and at about two-thirds the size of the unique version’s rulebook, faster to digest. Several single-sheet image breakdowns present clear descriptions of results, and could be handed across the desk to assist as you study the iconography. And one other sheet depicts the cardboard chains which might be obtainable for gamers who actually wish to plan forward of their methods.
Another essential notice is that the game’s participant depend has been revised. The unique version provided a two-player variant, but it surely was by no means one of the simplest ways to play the game. With this re-creation, writer Repos Production appears to acknowledge that truth, and easily acknowledges that the game is explicitly constructed for 3 to seven gamers.
The field insert is extra helpfully organized, with simple rounded pockets for fast retrieval of tokens inside. And, on that topic, the tokens themselves have been tweaked for simpler fast identification at a look, with a pointy black border aesthetic on many, and simpler studying of the numbers on the purpose worth tabs, because of stark white backgrounds.
The largest aesthetic bounce is with the Wonder cardboard planks that act as a participant’s central play space. The Wonders at the moment are depicted on bigger cardboard items than within the unique, to higher showcase the evocative artwork. And in contrast to within the unique, these giant cardboard sheets now have completely different artwork on all sides – an image of the Wonder within the day, and a brand new, separate picture depicting the identical website at evening – every providing a barely completely different play expertise.
While the various playing cards won’t have the “wow” issue of the brand new Wonders, they handle a really shut second. All the cardboard backs at the moment are coated in a sexy metallic sheen, cut up between bronze, silver, and gold, to match the three respective Ages by which the game strikes. The impact lends an nearly decadent vibe to the decks. Perhaps extra importantly, the cardboard fronts have been reorganized. Borrowing a presentation model from 7 Wonders Duel (a superb 2-player game in its personal proper), the brand new playing cards layer all of the related icon info on the high of the cardboard, permitting for vertical stacking. In the prior version, you’d must fan the playing cards out in your playspace so as to see all of the related information; this newer, vertical orientation makes for a cleaner and extra organized desk. That doesn’t sound like an enormous deal, till you’ve performed a number of games of the primary version of seven Wonders, at which level that desk sprawl can generally be an issue, particularly in giant participant depend periods.
Beyond quality-of-life enhancements and a few new paintings, skilled gamers will notice that a few of the playing cards and Wonders have new values and useful resource prices related to them. With a game as advanced and multi-layered as 7 Wonders, I’ll be sincere that it’s laborious even after a number of playthroughs to talk to how these small tweaks change the worth of particular person playing cards and assets, in direct comparability with the older values. However, I can say with authority that the brand new version nonetheless has that really feel of seamless interplay and steadiness that skilled tabletop gamers start to get a way for. Play flows easily, all of the methods nonetheless appear viable, and the cardboard chains and interconnections all match the theming of the traditional world.
Should I Get The New Edition?
There’s a straightforward reply to this query in case you don’t but personal 7 Wonders, however you think about your self a burgeoning tabletop fanatic. Pick up a replica of seven Wonders, and ensure it’s this re-creation. If unsure, search for the positioning of the large statue on the duvet. The re-creation has the statue’s head straight beneath the “D” within the title. This is the higher model to personal in case you’re beginning contemporary, and I assure, a stellar addition to your library.
If you already personal 7 Wonders, I feel the reply is extra sophisticated. I’ve performed sufficient of the unique version to say that it holds up fairly nicely, even stacked towards the alluring options of this re-creation. Plus, you might have expansions for that first version that you just don’t need to go away behind. If that’s the camp you’re in, I actually imagine you’ll proceed to like your outdated (and sure nicely cherished) copy.
With that mentioned, this re-creation is a magnificence; in case you’re a very enthusiastic fan of the game, you actually received’t be unhappy to see the slick presentation and desk presence afforded by this rework.
7 Wonders is stellar game that welcomes a broad vary of gamers to the desk. If you’re on the lookout for a deep game with tons of replayability, and the traditional civilization vibe strikes a chord, you actually can’t go unsuitable. However, in case you’re on the lookout for one thing else fully, don’t hesitate to click on into the Top of the Table banner from under to search out dozens of different advisable board, card, miniature, and role-playing games. As all the time, in case you want a bit extra private advice, drop me an e-mail and I’ll show you how to discover the appropriate game for your loved ones or pal group.
