Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Deliveries


This month has seen a few parcels delivered. It's always nice to see those jiffy bags and packages waiting patiently for me when I get home.

So what did I get, well 7 Wonders Leaders was a must. 7 Wonders was my most played game of last year. The fact that its simple to teach, can handle 7 players and is pretty quick makes it a great go to game. I wasn't bored with the original as I think it still has plenty of life in it but I am a sucker for expansions. Especially if they are reasonably priced.

Leaders adds 40 cards, a few tokens and a new wonder, the Collosium of Rome. the meat of the game is the 36 leader cards. The artwork on these is really nice and I hope it will get players into researching who these people were and what they did. They are a really diverse selection that effects how the game is played, but not enough to make it too difficult.

At the start of the game everyone is dealt 4 Leaders cards. They pick one and pass the remaining 3 along. From these 3 they pick one and pass, and again until you have 4 leader cards.
Now at the start of each Age you get to play a leader. You can play the cost in gold and add it to your area to activate its ability. You can discard it for 3 coins or finally use it to build a part of your wonder. similar actions to the main game so nothing to difficult to understand.
The abilities are ranging from VP gaining abilities, cheaper card building, extra science cards, etc. The icons make them easy to understand and the rule book does a good job.

So far I am really impressed with this expansion, it adds enough to the game without making it overly complex or bloating it with useless rules. I can see every game of 7 Wonders will now include the Leaders expansion.

Paperclip Railway was a game I was very keen to try at the UK Games expo. It sounded like a fun little train game that uses paperclips to represent the railway tracks between stations. Unfortunately it was sold out at the expo, but I received an email last week offering me a copy as there were several pre-orders not picked up. I couldn't say no so a copy was posted out.

I haven't played it yet, its down to be played tonight but after reading the rules and pouring over the components it looks like it will be a lot of fun.

I will post some thoughts on the game after its been played.

Lastly there is Barons by Cambridge Games Factory. They are mainly know for the excellent Glory to Rome. Barons promised to be Glory's little brother. I saw that the first print run was quickly being snapped up so ordered a copy.

I have played it a few times now and although its a pretty good game, I have played better. The players are trying to win the game by building a Cathedral. To do this they need to spend cards from each of the 4 coloured decks. Cards in the game can be used in many ways, as "money", lands that increase the size of your barony and as action/buildings or knights.
you basically start of playing cards face down as resource generating lands. These are taxed to add more cards in your hand. This increases your options, so you can then place more lands or spend the cards to use them as knights/buildings or actions. You quickly realize that you are not going to be able to buy all the cards you want and deciding what you will have to use as payment starts to hurt. Its a balancing act of increasing the size of your realm to generate more cards as well as building up the special ability cards. All this while playing knights to attack the other players and defend your realm.

I really can't put a finger on why I am not overly enamored with this game. The components are ok, some of the cards have been cut a little wonky and the plastic box that the game comes in is a little cheap. The game itself is ok, its just missing something.

I am now eagerly awaiting the first expansion for the Lord of the Rings card game. I played my first 2 player game of it last week and it worked really well. In fact maybe too well as we managed to blitz the starting scenario. Previously playing Solo I wasn't doing that well against it. Having 2 players seemed to help with multiple cards. We were using the Spirit and Tactics decks and questing seemed too easy. We were maybe a little lucky in that we didn't get that many attacking mobs.

First print run has sold out, but I believe that the second run is hitting distribution shortly.
This has so far been my favorite game so far this year. It's just so easy to get a game in by myself that it's replacing time on the Xbox.

2 comments:

Eric Franklin said...

I love it when an overview of a game I had a hand in includes a line like, "the rule book does a good job."

It means I did a good job. :)

(I don't have Leaders, yet - did my name make it into the credits? What about my wife's?)

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