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Tag Archives: 7 Wonders

Temple of Element Evil Board Game & 7 Wonders

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We’re playing through the Temple of Element Evil board game. After a rocky start I think we’ve hit our rhythm. Owen’s character bought his way up to second level this week and we didn’t need to use any Surge Counters for healing. So far so good!

After finishing this week’s ToEE scenario, we played a couple games of 7 Wonders. We all love this game…even if we can’t deal out all of the cards (right Ben?) or manage to pass the cards the correct direction every time. (Yep, we’re the best of the best at this game.)

The first game was pretty close, with only 4 points between first and last place. The second game…not so close.

Our scores for the night:

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Clash of Cultures, 7 Wonders & Puerto Rico

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Lately our board game evenings have been taken up with Clash of Cultures. I’ve written about this game before, but if you’ve never heard of it or want to learn more here’s the BoardGameGeek link.

I think we’ve played three more games recently. I have scores for two of them. The other game, Owen did so poorly he paid off the author with french fries and ice cream to not print those scores.

Game 1: Evil Mike 37, Steve 33.5, Ben 23, and Owen 20.5.

Game 3: Owen 59 (Amazing!), Ben 42, Evil Mike 41.5 (Half a point difference!), 30.5 (I don’t want to talk about it.)

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In our down time we played 7 wonders. Ben won with 53 points. Owen was second with 48. Evil Mike had 40 points and I had 35 points. And I don’t want to talk about it.

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Finally we played an old favorite, Puerto Rico. I never do well in this game and it showed in the scores. Owen got an amazing 59 points to win. Ben had 47, a respectable showing. Evil Mike had 37 points and I had 35 points. We decided Evil Mike’s biggest issue was that his turn was right after Owen’s. I’m sure I had a big issue too, but I don’t want to talk about it.

Chaos Steve

Holiday Game Day 2012

We were able to fit in a holiday game day this week. We held it at Owen’s new place. Best game day ever. He had all the accoutrements a bunch of gaming guys would want—mostly delicious food, snacks, and drinks. He also recently purchased a dining room table that was the perfect sixe for gaming. Especially when you consider the first game we played was Civilization.

Civilization

We played the 2010 version of Sid Meier’s Civilization: The Board Game by Fantasy Flight Games. Apparently this version is in no way related to the 2002 game by Eagle Games which has the same name. Owen did a stellar job going over the rules with us. We had played this game at least once in the past, but I only vaguely remembered it. Mike seemed to remember a good bit about it. Ben wanted to skip the rules and just start playing it. We’ll see later what happened to Ben.

Ben was Egypt, Mike was China, Owen was Russia, and I was Germany. Mike decided to take the Culture Point path to victory. Ben mentioned that this was how I won the game the last time we played. I didn’t remember, but was glad I did so well. Being Germany I concentrated on military might. I’m not sure what Owen’s overarching plan was, but his cities flourished. Ben seemed to flounder. Maybe he should have listened to the rules. Owen and I were the first to get three cities on the board. Mike soon followed. I don’t think Ben ever had three cities. And if he did, it was only for a moment.

Soon it was a Culture Point race between Ben and Mike. Mike found many ways to use his Culture Cards…usually against me. Apparently my military might was scaring my neighbors. (I don’t think I lost a battle the entire game.) Owen’s country prospered.

Coming down to the end of the game, I had already destroyed one of Ben’s cities and I had my eye on his capital. (One of the ways to win the game was to destroy an <evil> opponent’s capital.)  Another way to win was to get the level five tech advancement of Space Flight. Owen was only a few tech’s away from that. Both Ben and Mike had slowed their Culture Point advancement. (You could also win by getting to the end of the culture track.) Suddenly I found myself with another military player on the block. Owen has raised his mounted forces all of the way to tanks! He too was heading for Ben’s capital. Mike attacked one of my city’s, mostly to weaken my military stash of units. It worked to a degree, but he ended up losing the battle.

Owen was now in position to attack Ben’s capital and win the game. Even with his tanks, he didn’t think he could do it. “But you could win the game!” we all said. Instead Owen attacked and destroyed one of Ben’s cities. The city contained a general so this weakened Ben. What was Owen up too? It appeared that his move only helped me to more easily take Ben’s capital. I pounced on Ben’s capital, only to be stopped by a Culture Card played by Owen!  I could NOT march on Ben’s capital this turn. We all knew Owen had something up his sleeve, but none of us could figure it out until he played that card. Now he had another turn to build his forces and attack Ben before me…but he didn’t.

On my next turn, I once again pounced on Ben’s capital. Once again Owen played the same Culture Card to stop me. He had TWO of those stinking cards! Ben’s forces were next to nothing, but he got a huge bonus from his capital. I decided to use a single army, consisting of 3 units to attack him. Ben had 3 units as well. My only hope was that Ben’s army was crap. It was! I won the battle by a slim margin, winning the game.

We all enjoyed this game and hope we can find the time to play it again soon. It took us six hours to complete it.

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As the Munchkin box says, “Kill the monster. Steal the treasure. Stab your buddy.” So it was with us. This is a fun, lighthearted card game of trying to be the first player to get a 10th level character. During our game, Ben lagged behind—maybe because he didn’t have a “Boots of Butt-Kicking” or “Flaming Armor”. Maybe because he didn’t listen the rules and just wanted to start playing the game. I don’t know. I was the steady leader until Mike got a bunch of treasure for helping out (taking advantage off) his friends. He got 3 or 4 quick level-ups to put him at 9th level. To reach 10th level you must kill a monster. On Mike’s turn all he had to do was draw or play a monster and then kill it. He got one. Fortunately I had a card to divert his monster to Ben. Ben got the level-up, not Mike. I reached 9th level next, but I did it the old fashion way, by fighting and clawing my way there. Around to Mike again—no monsters showed up on his turn, nor on my turn. Owen reached 9th level. Again, no monsters for Mike. No monsters for me. Owen got a monster…a level 2 monster—something he could kill in his sleep. We played everything we had against him, but it was too little, too late…until Mike played his card and sucked a level from Owen. Owen killed the monster and was back up at 9th level with Mike and I. Again no monsters for Mike or me. Mike and I were hoping against hope for Owen to pull a 20th level monster; something he couldn’t easily kill. Owen pulled a 20th level platinum dragon from the deck and defeated it to win the game.

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We all love 7 Wonders. We played two games of it. During the first game, we pretty much thought Ben had it sewn up with his green tech cards. He was close, but somehow I squeaked by him with 57 points. Ben had 55. Owen had 50 and poor Mike had 33. Mike’s constant cry during the third phase of the game was “Why don’t you turkeys have any glass!!”

The next game Mike made up for it by handily winning with 54 points. I was second with 47. Ben had 45 and Owen had 40.

We had a great day! Thanks to Owen for hosting!!

Chaos Steve

7 Wonders

We played 7 Wonders again this week. 7 Wonders is primarily a card game, but plays like a board game. Each player receives a board showing their civilization and what is need to build their particular wonder. Along the way you play cards that represent materials and buildings. Some cards take effect immediate, while others become important later in the game. Many cards give you benefits throughout the game. One important thing to note about the game is that after you choose a card to play, you pass the remaining deck to another player. This means that not only are you looking to play good cards for yourself, but also may want to keep cards that might otherwise help your opponents.

We played four games in about three hours. In the first game I became kingmaker. This is, thanks to something I did, I helped Owen win the game. What I did was pass him a card at the end of the game that garnered him a few victory points and a few gold. This became very important when at the end of the game he and Mike were tied for the win at 48 points. The tiebreaker is gold. Owen had two more gold pieces than Mike. I came in third with 43 and Ben was last with 42 points.

I crushed them in the second game with 55 points. Owen, in second place, had 47 points. Mike had 46 and Ben came in last with 42 points—just like last game. We mentioned to Ben that it is unlikely that he will win unless he gets more than 42 points. He listened to us in the third game.

In the third game, first, second, and third places were decided by a single point. Ben, taking our advice, got 56 points and came in first. I was second with 55 points and Owen was third with 54 points. Mike got a dismal 47 points and came in dead last. But Mike learned a few things that he decided to put into play during the next game. His new strategy worked out very well for him.

In our last game it was obvious that Owen was going for straight victory points. By that I mean playing building cards that granted him no other benefit other than providing straight victory points. Mike was after artifacts. Artifact victory points can go up almost exponentially. The key is to get a lot of the right types of artifacts. Mike did this exceptionally well. (I blame Owen for not watching him more closely.)  MIKE CRUSHED US getting the highest game total ever; beating out any previous high total by close to 20 points! Mike made up for all of his previous poor showings by getting an amazing 75 points! Ben (surprisingly) came in second with 52 points. Owen had 51 points and I had an embarrassing 41 points. (Let’s not mention how Mike nearly doubled my points.)

I had seven pages of charts and diagrams showing the various statistical data from our games. I would have loved to have upload them, but Mike still hasn’t figured out why we can no longer upload images. Oh well you’ll just have to imagine just how cool they were.

Chaos Steve

Sum of
Score		 Game
Player Game 1 Game 2 Game 3 Game 4 Grand Total
Ben 42 42 56 52 192
Mike 48 46 47 75 216
Owen 48.2 47 54 51 200.2
Steve 43 55 55 41 194
Grand Total 181.2 190 212 219 802.2

 

Average
of Score
Player Total
Ben 48
Mike 54
Owen 50.05
Steve 48.5
Grand Total 50.1375

 

 

 

 

7 Wonders

Owen brought us a new game last night called 7 Wonders. We LOVED it! It’s basically an enhanced card game with some nice dynamics and various ways to earn victory points. Four guys, who deliberate over each action for a  l o n g  time, can finish a game in under 40 minutes. AND the game can handle up to seven players! We all liked this game. Especially the guy that won two out of the three games we played. Even the guy who came in dead last in two of the games (Mike) liked it.

Our first game lasted an hour as we sorted out just what we needed to do each turn. I made a tremendous blunder during my last action of the game. I was expecting to complete my wonder and garner some victory points. Then I realized that I didn’t have the resources to complete it. I was the only player not to complete his wonder. Ben won the game with 63 points. Owen was second with 55. I still got 49 points and realized that completing my wonder wouldn’t have changed my standing. Mike came in very last with 40 victory points.

Our next game found me in a similar state during the closing actions of the game. I needed papyrus. My kingdom for papyrus! Because of my lack papyrus AND my neighbors lack of it—I could have bought some from them—I couldn’t take advantage of several great cards that came my way. This game ended with Ben and me tying at 51 points and Mike and Owen tying at 44 points. The tie breaker was gold. I was loaded with it and won the game. Owen has more gold than poor Mike so Mike was sent to last place again. This game took less than 40 minutes.

Our last game found us all getting points from different areas of the game. This made it hard for us to tell just who was in the lead or who was doing well. I finally completed a wonder during a game. It’s probably why I won with 55 points. Ben was second with 48. Mike narrowly got a third place finish with his 44 points. Owen was last, just one point behind Mike, at 43.

We will definitely play this game again.

Chaos Steve